Legend of the Mystery of the Sea
by The Great Jay Gatsby
Summary: 'Whoever shall possess this pendant, shall hold the fate of the Mer-people and their ancestors within themselves.' or so the legend goes. Mind readers Drew, Gary, Paul, Ash, and Thomas have the five pendants of Alesmira, queen of the five seas. Princesses May, Leaf, Dawn, Misty, and Ellen must retrieve these pendants before the Vardin claims them for themselves. Some bad language.
1. Intro

"Drew catch the ball!" Thrusting the football forward with all his might, Ash Ketchum called out to his fellow friend.

...

"These people, the ones with our fate in their hands, they could destroy us, in the blink of an eye."

...

"Chill your tits bro, I got it!" Drew replied while catching the brown ball with ease.

...

"you must prepare yourselves, for them to be demonic and cruel, and for them to 'want' to destroy us."

...

"Nice catch bro, the chic's went nuts!" Gary Oak spoke with praise to his childhood friend.

...

"No matter who or what you find you must be prepared to do what ever it takes to reclaim the five pendants of Alesmira, for they are sacred to our survival."

...

"Dude that's it for today, I'm done." Drew replied while pouring water down his shirtless, toned back.

...

"Do you understand?" The civil lady finished and each mermaid princess nodded. "Very good, now go!"

...

"whimp" Paul scolded. The brilliant and evasive middle line backer turned to face the girls who 'went nuts'! '_Oh why cant Paul-ly take off his short like Drew-poo?' 'Gary's not that much of a player, right? So that means he's not just winking at me, right?_' Various women's thoughts rang through his head. '_Why does Ash refuse to notice me? I love him and that's all that matters, I mean, so what if he doesn't feel the same, screw love I want him_!' Some women need a leash.

Noting Paul's concentration, the other boys began filing through different people's minds. Expertly entering and exiting like true mind readers

Drew, Paul, Gary, Ash, and Thomas, the handsome, cunning and outstanding mind readers of World Academy. Each had a talent, each had a name, each had a reputation.

Drew, young, beautiful, and horrifyingly intelligent. Not only was Drew a mind reader, he had the brain power of a mad scientist. This earned him the position of star quarterback and football captain.

Paul, bad, hot, and relentlessly strong. Paul's strength was one with which could match the Hulks. Which lands him as middle line backer.

Gary, sexy, gorgeous, and stupidly equipped with x-ray vision. Using this gift he would preach to pretty girls about how they should wear pink underwear instead of blue in brood daylight in front of their boyfriends, making it impossible for him not to know how to run. This being true, he's assured the position of running back.

Ash, stupid, idiotic, and speedy fast. His record speed being almost the speed of light. Unfortunately he could not be running back in fear of exposing their secret, so he has been stuck with wide receiver.

Thomas, calm, collected, and with the hearing of a bat. Being able to use this ability as a sonar, he can see in the dark. He is also quite big and strong, making him prefect for defensive end.

Drew smirked, "looks like someone's rather unhappy about the purpose of a shirt." Laughing like idiots, they were unaware their life was about to drastically change.

...

"So we leave tomorrow right?" Dawns voice was hused due to their sleeping caretaker.

Leaf leaned forward to hear her friend.,"Yeah, why! Have you not packed yet?" Leafs voice however, was not.

"Shhhhhhhh! You'll wake him!" Dawn felt the need to reprimand her. "Soooo, how hard do you think it will be to find the people who stole the pendants? I mean, well, also who do you think has them?"

Leaf squinted her eyes and looked at her dear friend, "Some truly hated mortals, thats who. Mortals who will pay for what they have done." With this said, she laid back down on her firm mattress.

Dawn turned her head also, except she turned her head to stare, not sleep. She stared at the wall for hours until she thought of her next question, " how do you know these people are hated? Leaf?"

The brunet sighed and turned, "You should get some rest Dawn. Tomorrow won't be the easiest day to come." She relaxed and began to drift to slumber, but not before adding "and because, who could love or like someone like them?"

Dawn looked at her beloved friend, she was wrong she thought, everyone is loved by someone.


	2. Chapter 2

With Leaf speeding through the hills of the Kanto region, they all knew they would be at their new school in no time flat. Misty was in the passengers seat while May, Dawn, and Ellen were in the back partying.

"So, why are we going to this place again? I mean, couldn't the pendants be anywhere by now, they've been stolen for over 100 years." Leaf stated very pessimistically, but that's who she was, always seeing the dark side of things.

Dawns head snapped towards Leaf and Misty upon hearing this, 'has it really been that long?' She thought,so she decided to ask. " If the pendants have been gone this long, how do we know they are okay? And why haven't we tried to retrieve them before? Or, have we?" Misty turned to look at her and mouthed 'No' quite disgusted that her friend couldn't even remember that neither of the princesses had ever surfaced before, let alone left their kingdoms except to see each other.

May decided to answer her this time, finding it the best time to enter the conversation. "Well Dawn, the protecters of the pendants left the limits of the sea a long time ago to help protect the pendants from the Vardin, but the signal that each and every princess has with their kingdoms pendants were lost five generations ago. In all honesty, it's unknown what happened to the pendants, whether they were stolen or not. It's a real possibility that they might have just been passed down a mortal family and the mortals forgot the care that must be given to the pendants." May looked quite pleased with herself but she forgot one thing.

"And the reason we are going to this academy is because Misty's connection was breached and she felt that her pendant was in umm, what city, I don't know I forgot..." Ellen inquired.

Misty looked up for awhile seemingly lost in thought. She didn't know where exactly she could just feel the connection. "I don't know, I just know we're heading the right way. I also know that they are together, that's why I felt the connection. They all came in contact withy the Pendant of Water."

"And what exactly are we gonna do if these 'humans' who have the pendants aren't friendly, hmm? Grow our tails and whack them with them, in the middle of the whole city?" All girls frowned, Leaf was right. The secret of the sea must be kept and they all knew it. Leaf mean while was looking back and forth between the road and Misty waiting for an answer, however when she did not receive one she decide to speak again. "I think we need to get one thing straight. No magic, no nothing. Just normal girls going to a human school. As far as we are concerned, mermaids don't exist. Okay?" Lead finished while raising her eyebrows.

Dawn gasped and looked appalled by what she had just said, 'no mermaids'. This idea had shocked her, 'why can't we just tell the people who have our pendants and ask for them back?' She thought. "Why Leaf? What if we want to go for a swim or something, or want to speak with the dolphins? And what if we..." She was quickly cut off by May and the others, feeling that they needed to make the point clear.

"No Dawn, 'no mermaids'. This means no swims, no controlling water, and in my case, no boiling water, no talking with the sea creatures, no tails, no nothing. The humans will freak if they find out who and mainly WHAT we are." May finished, she had tried to be as soft as possible but still get the point across. They could not be mermaids until they had their respective pendants in hand.

"Literally." Leaf added with a slight giggle.

...

-At the new school-

-Paul-

When I poked my head through the door, I realized principal old hag was still yapping about the schools policy and rules. 'Like I care at all?' Me and my friends couldn't care less about the rules, we were the pranksters of the school. Everybody knew it, but nobody could prove it. Both because we were just that good, and because every time we would read their minds and or change their thoughts. 'Humans' I thought in disgust, 'every time they meddle with our business, and every time one of them ends up getting hurt. Thank god not one of them asked to join us in out troublemaking this time, or they would be caught for sure. ' However, I was interrupted from my thoughts by my very, stupid friend.

"So Paul, what-cha thinkin' 'bout? Ya thinkin' 'bout how we gonna get this good and done?" He asked. How stupid, we had already told him about a million times.

Sighing I said "No Ash, actually I'm thinking about how idiotic you really are." With this Gary and Drew laughed while Thomas tried to comfort a horrified Ash. Suddenly someone walked out of the other door leaving it open so we could hear the principal loud and clear.

"Now lastly students, no funny business. Go straight to class and never dilly dally, unlike last years group. Now, on too the most important matter at hand, sexual conduct..." I stopped listening to her from that point on, the woman could talk and talk and talk. Unfortunately.

"Well, well, well, looks like we left and impression on Ms. Pitts, ready to leave another one?" Drew asked grinning evilly. I smirked, it was time.

...

-May-

When we pulled up too the school it was so grand it looked like one of the grand duchesses house. Covered with green vines the large white doors looked beautiful. "So guys, you ready for orientation?" I asked sarcastically. This would be our first interaction with the mortal kind, ever.

"Yep! I bet this will be fun, what about you guys?" Dawn chirped. She was always so happy, how again?

"Suuuuuurrrrreeeeeeeee..." Ellen rolled her 'r' and let the sarcasm sink in. We laughed at Dawn while she pouted. 'How Dawn of her' I thought. Soon enough though she had blown it off and was ready to continue.

"Well lets go then slow pokes." She stated while linking everyone's arms and walking up the large concrete steps. Once we'd finished trudging up the steps, Dawn swung the doors open, reviling a large, EMPTY corridor. Then suddenly we heard a loud bang and a couple of crashes. Then came the yelling and screaming. Instinctively, we dashed forward trying to help in anyway we could, they might be humans, but they don't deserve whatever's happening to them now.

Suddenly Misty brought everyone to a halt and pointed toward a large brown wooden door with a shiny, silver handle. "There!" She scream and pushed the large door open, then...

_Oomph_!

There we were lying on the ground staring at the five, unfortunate looking boys who ran into us. Only problem was, they were grinning wider than the Joker.

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Hey guys sorry about the mistakes! I type all this on my iPad so it changes everything, and when I try to fix them it will change them a second time and sometimes even a third. But anyway thanks for reading and hopefully reviewing! Reviewing makes everything easier on me so please review! Thanks again and have a great rest of your day.

Oh, actually one more thing! I have five pendants of Alesmira, each one representing something different in our world. So far I have fire, water, earth, and air. While I'm thinking about changing air into something else I don't know what, especially when I don't even know what my fifth pendant will be. I'm thinking it will be the pendant of life but I also like idea of the pendant of faith or trust or love even. I don't know yet though. SO tell me what you want, THANKS!


	3. Chapter 3

**So um, review please, oh and tell me what you want the fifth Pendant to be, I've got water, fire, earth, air, and I'm thinking about life, but maybe not. I don't know. But yeah please review all are appreciated, some might even change the lay out of my story… so for now, have a pleasant day!**

**Sincerely, Jay Gastby.**

**PS-I own nothing nor do I own anything in the earlier chapters or chapters to come except maybe the idea of the story. **

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"Those freaking BASTERDS!" Dawn was screaming she was so furious. "They RUINED my shirt!"

All the yelling was getting to Leaf however, making her muter "Calm down Dawn. It's just a shirt."

Upon arriving at the school the girls had learned that the 'orientation' had been…destroyed. The entire thing had been ruined to satisfy a couple of pranksters, 'how selfish.' Leaf thought. They had hacked into the lighting system and programed the lights to act like strobes for a minute, and apparently, within that 'minute', _humans_ had filled the room with paint, glue, and crickets making every girl in the room go haywire. Who ever sat down became glued to the benches and whoever fell due to the chaos became covered in paint. That wasn't all though, also with in that so called minute, everyone's purse, backpack, satchel, or bag of any kind had been filled to the brim with rotten eggs and mustard. Then lastly, the pranksters had hung an enormous water balloon filled with vanilla pudding from the ceiling of the building, and supposedly the balloon was filled with enough pudding to make everyone covered in it, all 3,000 students and teachers, including the pranksters successfully concealing their identity.

People were furious and hysterical due to the events of this morning's circus. The girls however, found this as a chance to get situated. Dorm rooms for people of non-specialty (as in stars of the school, as in the football team, cheerleading squad and others like that) situated 2 people each. This being true, Misty and Leaf decided to share a bedroom while May and Dawn decided to help Ellen steal a bed from her dorm and creatively place it in the dorm making the three room together. Each of the girls added their own appeal to the rooms of the dorm not leaving a single room the same. Once the girls had finished upgrading their dorms they had decided to evaluate each other's. Leaf's and Misty's entire dorm had a theme of blood red and black with wooden furniture with the exception of their kitchen, whose colors were light and dark blue tile. Normally this wouldn't work but because a wall separated the kitchen from the rest of the house, it did. Then came the actual bed room which, like the kitchen, had a blue theme but they had also brought back the black paint and wooden furniture opposed to the earthy marble in the kitchen.

Then May's, Dawn's and Ellen's dorm had a theme of fuchsia and gold, courtesy of Dawn. Their kitchen was like all other dorms, allowing them to paint it a fashionable white, grey, and black. Then lastly, their bedroom had an array of green in it, they also brought back the gold paint. All of their furniture was similar to May's and Misty's if the exact same. Leaf remember how jealous she had been to find out the other girls bedroom was green, also how jealous May had been to find all the red. They both weren't allowed to use their favorite colors in their dorms solely because one of their roommates did not agree with the color scheme.

This, of course, had been earlier in the morning, _before_ Dawn haw found out the effects of the mixture of pudding and rotten eggs. Now, Leaf had to sit through Dawn's rant about her hatred for some unruly looking boys they had met this morning too.

"I've already washed this rotten piece of clothing like, THREE TIMES ALREADY! What else does it want?" Her face was scrunched up in a nasty manner form the mere smell of the cotton.

Leaf had had enough, "Dawn, Get a grip, it's just a shirt! You can get another one."

Dawn was about to retort to that comment but she was interrupted by five barefoot, shirtless boys in sweatpants entering the schools laundry room, _the _five boys to be correct.

-Boys-

"Bro, that prank was just brilliant, another job well done Drew!" Ash exclaimed

Drew smirked and returned the great compliments, "well now Ash, we definitely would not have been able to do any of this great deed toward society without your amazing speed." They all laughed with a grunting Paul in the back.

"Not to mention those smoking hot babes we ran into ay the doors. That was the best part. Hey who were they anyway, I've never seen them before which is odd considering I know every relatively attractive girl in the school." Gary seemed truly puzzled by this, and it was true, he knew every girl by name and age, which was a bit creepy.

Every boys face turned from one of content to one of displeasure due to this. None of them knew who they were, and to them, when they have ability as unique as theirs, it is their business to know everyone. _Especially, _when they couldn't read their minds, which they couldn't, not those girls, something was off about them.

Thomas was about to pest Drew into hacking the system to find out more about them when there those girls were…in front of them…in the laundry room at the school.

-May-

"Well, well, well, look who we have here boys, those clumsy ass girls who just couldn't keep their hands off us this morning." The green haired one spoke first, breaking the silence of surprise. However, I was not going to take kindly to THIS kind of insulting, who does he think he is, acting as if he has a fan club! I have now declared this an insult match.

"Well Mr. Ugly, that wig of yours is looking pretty dirty, perhaps you should consider taking a shower, you know wash off some of that _arrogance."_ That felt good, I had to admit. When given the chance I can best normal people at matches like this, unless that person was one of the girls, then I'm screwed. But this, this was a normal _human _boy, not just a human, but a _boy, _an idiotic, arrogant, and stupid boy.

"Why I love taking showers, I could show you how sometime if you'd like, you know, help you with that smell of yours." This boy however, liked to prove me wrong. Within a spilt second he had replied with a smart ass remark barely even having to think about it, and he beat me, at my own game. And after all this, he had the nerve to smirk and flick his hair at me. WHAT THE HECK! Who does he think he is?! I was beyond pissed off at this, this, this abomination to society!

"Why you little mhhmm…"My mouth was covered by a soft, cool hand…Dawn. WHY ON EARTH WAS SHE STOPPING ME FROM SHOWING THIS GUY THE POWER OF MY FURY! I was about to ask her what she thought she was doing, quite rudely may I add, but suddenly I was pulled backwards by Misty and Leaf. They threw me in the hallway while I heard Dawn and Ellen tell those dimwits we had to go.

"May you have to control yourself, you can't be doing that." Was Misty reprimanding me for standing up for myself? What was happening today?

I was furious, "What on earth do you mean, I was just standing up for myself!" I screamed at her in all my fury, however, somewhere in my mind I knew I would soon regret that decision.

Misty's face however softened from the current scowl I was receiving to and unhappy frown. "You mean you really didn't know you were boiling the water in the washer?"

I was shocked, this boy, this _mortal boy, _had been able to piss me off enough to make me lose all my control and completely forget what I was doing. And he was able to do it in less than a minute. Odd.

-Boys-

Drew and the boys stared at the retreating figures in disbelieve, 'how come they are going crazy at the mere sight of us?' was all they could think.

"Well that has never happened before..." stated Ash and for once, he was right.

Drew thought for a while then dashed out the room following the girls and stopped in front of the closed door with the rest of the boys in tow. Hearing voices he decided to listen.

"You have to get a grip on yourself and not let that happen again, we can't have that." Drew couldn't quite make out who all was talking and who wasn't, but that was irrelevant to him at this time, he would figure out who said what later.

"Those boys, they're too risky, we need to stay away from them, what do you think Ellen?"

"I think you're right, we need to keep our distance from them and focus on the task at hand, no time for boys. Got it?" 'What task?' Drew felt Ash's thoughts enter his mind.

"How am I supposed to know…yet?" Drew replied with a mischievous face. Then he realized all talking had stopped, and it hit him, they needed to get out of there and not be seen. 'RUN!' he thought, and all the boys dashed out of the hallway, just in time too.

-Drew-

I was panting; we had run so fast and so far, even for a football player. Ash was even a little run down, but not by much. Who were those girls? And what are they doing here? They aren't normal. They can't be, no human girl can just blow us off like that, not to mention the fact that I can't read a single one of their minds. That scares me; nothing ever has, until now.

"Who are they?" Gary seemed to have to mumble he was so out of breath, and energy.

"Yeah and why can't we read their minds, that's not good, or is it?" Ash asked in response.

Thomas and I laughed at him; he's so naïve about everything. Paul however wasn't entertained. "How stupid can you get Ash, you don't even know if it's a bad thing?" he grunted out unhappily.

Ash looked bewildered and not in the least bit hurt, just stunned. I don't think he got the real message of what Paul said. "Whoever they are they are extremely pathetic to think they can just get away from us that easily. Can we read their minds, no; is that a good thing, no; can we follow them and find the flaw in their little 'task', yes. And that's exactly what I plan on doing. Tonight I will filter through the system and find out everything I can on these girls, which I assume will be more than they want but still not as much as I want, they seem like they can handle themselves pretty well. In the morning I will put out all their files at breakfast and each of us will choose one of them to follow, 'read minds if possible', and figure out who they really are. Deal?" I decided something had to be done about this…'problem' we were having, and this was my solution.

"I'm game." Gary responded. While the others just shook their head and surprisingly, even Paul. 'Well this will be interesting' I let my thought ring through the other guys minds and we all smirked.


	4. Chapter 4

**Oh my, deciding on the fifth pendant is so hard, I like metal the best though. I liked ice it was just too closely related to water though. So I don't think so, BUT there is still a possibility. I also might just stick with life. One reason I wouldn't use metal is if I couldn't come up with an appropriate ability to go with it, whereas ice and life would be easy. Anyways thanks for the reviews guys, they really help; I would still like more suggestions for the fifth pendant if ya got one though? Yes, no, maybe, thanks anyways! Oh and tell me what you think about the length of my chapters! Thanks!**

**Courtesy of, **

**Jay Gatsby **

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**-Paul-**

_Stupid_ girls, _stupid_ math, _stupid_ test. This week had not been the best for me and my friends. Drew had been up all night every night hacking into every system he could, which means all systems out there, to find something, _anything_, on those girls. But no, he found zip. This for us is not good after all there are people out there who hunt people like us, and they're not the friendliest. It was pissing him off too; lately he had sent three people to the hospital during football practice and considering we have a game tonight is not the best for the team.

All this worried us, the only things we could find about them was that to the government, they didn't exist, which poses the question of 'how they got enrolled in a rich kid school'. We got a few security cameras with their faces in the tapes near a beach late at night during the night before they arrived but that was basically it. Now Drew's plan was to get to know them and maybe get them 'right where he wanted them', whatever that means. And the first step in his plan was to get them to watch the game tonight, so we could watch their behavior from afar.

Only problem was I had to get through math first, which honestly isn't so bad when you could read the teachers mind and figure out all the answers to the quiz's and homework, something Ash still had to figure out; idiot.

And now as I looked at the clock I realized it was time for me to turn in my quiz. I watched as the whole class gave an irritated expression as Drew, Gary, Thomas, and I walked up to the teacher to hand in our quizzes. When I handed him mine he lightly groaned and thought '_if they keep turning in 50 question quizzes in 5 minutes and getting hundreds on them I'll have to make them harder._' This only made me laugh though, how pathetic can he get; it only takes us five minutes because we have to fill out the test, not do the math.

'_Did you hear that, the teacher thinks he can actually make a hard quiz for us?' _My friends all mentally laughed at my comment, Ash was the only one to actually respond, sadly.

'_What do you mean; I think this test is incredibly hard!' _Ash complained, which forced all of us to slam our heads in our desks.

Thomas looked up first and shook his spiky blonde hair as he stared right at Ash and thought '_Ash you dimwit, how stupid can you get? Are you a mind reader or not?' _Thomas squinted his earthy colored eyes (earth yellow to be exact, I liked it but I had to look it up, it's a shade of brown which I thought would look nice with blond hair) to give his words emphases.

In reply Ash glared at Thomas, and growled lightly causing the person to his right to jump with fright and scoot over a bit. 'That's funny; _Paul's voice must've changed because I could've sworn I was talking to him.' _

This caught my attention quite fast and I felt the need to reply and defend my cold title. '_I wouldn't have been so nice about it.' _Ash just looked at me then turned back to his test while Drew and Thomas snickered, Gary was laughing causing people to glare at him, including that leaf girl to his left. She seemed irritated and about to start a conversation with him, perhaps I should listen through Gary's mind?

"Would you shut up? It's bad enough just having to be in the same class room as you let alone at the same desk as you, then you go and laugh during a quiz, thanks, your real helpful Oak." I could hear her voice clearly through his mind, which meant I wasn't the only one listening. As she glared at him he just continued laughing and didn't stop until he seemed ready to.

"Why are you so unhappy, most girls would kill to be in your position babe, it's definitely the one to be in?" As he whispered this he slid one of his hands up her leg, one which she caught with fury and twisted in a deadly grip. I watched as he grimaced while she sweetly whispered in his ear that if he were to ever touch her again, his hand wouldn't be the only thing in pain. When she released him from his punishment and turned back to her quiz he rubbed his hand and nodded at us letting us know it was time, he was about to ask her about her plans for the game. Bout time too, he had drawn the short straw, which meant he was to be the one to ask the girls; afterwards he protested saying I didn't even participate and draw a straw. I simply glared at him, like hell I was going to ask one of those girls to bring her friends to the game.

-Leaf-  
I had just begun to get started on my quiz again when _he _disrupted my peace, again. "So Babe…"

"Leaf." I glared at him, he knew my name; he just considered me something that belonged to him, which pissed me off. These boys, no matter how hard we had tried to stay away from them or avoid them, they just seemed to pop up everywhere in everything we did, so we had finally just decided to give up on ignoring them, but we still hate them. Gary's a player, Drew's an arrogant pest, Thomas is almost as arrogant as Drew and almost as much of a player as Gary, and Paul refuses to do anything but glare at us. Then there's Ash, who's just plain stupid. The boys call him dense, but I beg to differ.

"Right, Leaf…" He began again, "so I was wondering, would you and your smoking hot friends like to join us at the game tonight? I promise, you'll enjoy it, so I'll just tell the people at the gate to let you and your friends in for free courtesy of me." He said with a smug look. As if! Why would I let alone any of my friends want to go to a crummy game starring yours truly, Gary Oak, Drew Hayden, Paul Shinji, Thomas Attkins, and Ash Ketchum?

When I looked back at him he was leaned back in his seat relaxing, no doubt proud that he 'got' my friends and I to watch him play human dominoes. I smirked as I thought "This'll shock him!"

"No." I stated proudly as I watched him falter. He gave me a snarl then smirked and said something that made my heart drop.

"Times up." What! I'm not finished, time can't be up! Unfortunately though, He trotted triumphantly to the door as the school bell rang. When the teacher came round to gather the tests my eyes were so wide that he asked me if I was okay. That Oak, I'll kill him one of these days.

He laughed evilly as I glared at him. "I'll tell the people at the gate to expect a pissed off Leaf instead of a happy one." With that he swung his body out the door. I could only stare in anger where his body had been the second before.

I growled loudly making every one in the room shudder. Then I heard the teacher speak to me. "Ms. Green, you might want to get to your next class or you'll be late." Surprisingly my eyes could widen more, and they did as I heard the late bell ring. _Well f*ck, aren't I just having a splendid day. _

-Time Skippy-

-Dawn-

School was over and it was Friday, which meant the first game of the season was today, which meant that maybe those _parasites _would be too busy with their game to bother us, a great, wonderful, cheery, competitive game, a game I wanted to attend soooooooooo badly. Too bad I was stuck in my dorm with a couple of looser fish who would just hate to please me and go to that game.

I was grumbling and staring at the ground which, of course, was out of character for me so those looser fish decided to ask me if I was okay. Are they serious, they tell me I can't go to the game and expect me to be perfectly fine.

"Oh yes Misty, I'm just Cheery! Why, aren't you? After all, it's not like were missing a real life free football game, which could perhaps be a winning game, is it?" I asked her with so much sarcasm even she seemed to laugh a little. Leaf however, let her face fall.

"Seriously, you're still on that. I already explained to you why we can't go to that game Dawn; we need to start looking for the pendants! Someone has them and they might not be the descendants of the protectors." She groaned at me and gave an irritated stare.

"Please." Begging was one thing I was great at, my puppy dog face was just too cute to resist. And as she looked down at it, she sighed and gave me a light smile.

'Fine' was the last thing I heard as I was already dragging my friends out the door toward the stadium near the school. Excitement filled my mind as I processed the fact that we were going to the game!

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**Hey so ****HUGE CONTESTSHIPPING ****moment coming in the next chapter which, yes is already written! I'm just a cruel person who's going to make you wait to read it! And I realized that I need the Fifth pendant by the 6****th**** chapter, which if this ones the 4****th**** then the one I'm making you wait to read will be the 5****th****, which means I only got about a week or two. So help me out and thanks for the support!**

**Courtesy of,**

** Jay Gatsby**


	5. Chapter 5

**When I told myself I was going to actually wait at least a week to post this chapter I didn't think I could do it, I mean with it being summer I've got lots of free time so I pretty much just read and write so it might have been kinda cruel to make you wait for this chapter considering it was finished last week but I thought it would've been a little ridiculous to post two chapters at once so yeah…anyway here's your chapter, hope you enjoy!**

-Dawn-

After we had arrived to the game I had to literally pull Leaf and May along with us. It was obvious that had complete hatred for Drew and Gary. True, Ellen hated Thomas but, not like Leaf and May. Luckily though, the boys didn't notice us until after half time, which was so much fun! The band marched, the fans screamed, and the two teams broke into a fight! We won, only because Paul stepped up to break the fight apart, then the other teams player hit him in the stomach and winched in pain, then he cowered in the corner. Paul must have abs! After that girls began to ogle over Paul and his muscles and other things like that then Ash made some sort of amazing play, I really don't know that much about football. I just heard from mermaids that had been to the surface that if the chance arose, then you should go to a high school football game. Upon arriving though, we heard of something called the NFL.

Now however, there were ten minutes left in the game and we were 8 touchdowns ahead, and apparently we were about to get another. No doubt meaning we would win. I watched a Gary moved into place on the field and shouted at Leaf "This one's for you Leaf!" He pointed at her then dashed forward pulverizing every player in front of him when the ref blew his whistle. Then he expertly caught the thrown ball which came from Drew, and ran even faster heading toward the other end of the field ready for the touchdown. Once he had crossed the others teams touch down place thing line, he turned and pointed again at Leaf while taking off his helmet and smirking at her.

He shouted once more at her, "I knew you liked me!" assuming he had heard her screaming for him to hurry and make that touchdown already Leaf hid from him while she secretly blushed incredibly hard.

I laughed and smiled at her while I said "Leaf! Why didn't you tell me you liked him so much?" She snarled at me which only made me laugh harder. Misty was giggling beside me and May was desperately trying to comfort Lead saying that we were just joking while Ellen seemed to focus in on Thomas. Then she sped out of the stadium and went for the car.

"What's with her?" May inquired. I didn't know, all I knew was that she took our car! My jaw dropped as I stared in disbelief. If she took our car then we had a 45 minute walk ahead of us to get to our dorms. Great.

"I don't know but if we don't want to be walking in the dark at midnight then we better leave now, she took our car." I stated sadly and everyone else frowned.

Misty shook her head in agreement. "Dawn's right we better leave now before it gets too late, I mean we already know who's going to win thanks to Gary. Plus the sooner we get home the sooner we can get Ellen. Let's go guys." With that, she turned and walked away. Leaf and I followed her while we heard May say something about not wanting to walk that far.

Leaf sighed and turned back to face her, "Well what other choice do we have? It's not like we can go anywhere without a car except the school?"

"Yeah and I don't even think we can get in the school!" I added.

May seemed to think for a while then she snapped her fingers and the school showers should be open due to the game. And we all gave her questioning looks. "Well, if I were to shower I'm sure Ellen would return with the car by the time I'm done showering!"

I gave her a puzzled look then I realized that last time she had taken an hour long shower, we all had. But how could you blame us, we practically lived in a giant bath tub full of salt water for the majority of our 17 years.

I shrugged, if she wanted to shower there instead of at our place, fine by me. "But you don't have any clothes to change into, or shampoo or the other thing humans use, are you sure you want to shower there?" Misty still didn't seem convinced though, and she had a point.

However May shook her head in defiance, "The school has shampoo and 'conditioner' in every shower, and I did some laundry at the school so I've got some clothes, I just have to get them." With that she happily skipped off toward the school yelling for us to keep our phones on us in case she was to call. We all shared a glance and began a journey back to our dorms while May was still happily skipping down the street.

-Time Skippy-

-May-

I felt the warm water hit my back and moaned from the pleasant feeling. Showering was nice, and I liked it, it was one of the few things that I enjoyed above the surface. Also the boys, most of the ones up here were extremely cute! And as much as I hated to admit it, so was Drew.

Remembering the time I had seen him shirtless a few days ago, I reached for my shampoo and rubbed it into my hair. Rinsing the stuff out of my hair was my favorite part of a shower. I loved the feeling of the soap rolling down your back with the assistance of the warm water. I also love the steam, being the fire mermaid princess and able to boil water made me love steam and heat in general. I had the water so hot it would almost cause a burn to form on a human; almost.

Then, an idea popped in my head. Back in my kingdom, I had always heard from the surfaced mermaids that when showering you were supposed to sing, which was something I loved to do for my people, they always asked me to sing for them.

Feeling that it was only appropriate to sing, I began humming to my favorite surface song. When humming turned to mumbling words, and mumbling turned into singing I realized just how much fun I was having! It was just like at my home with no audience.

_It comes naturally, mmmmm it comes natural_

_And it takes my breath away_

_What you do, so naturally_

_You are the thunder and I am the lighting_

_And I love the you know who you are _

_And to me it's exciting_

_When you know it's meant to be…_

While finishing up my favorite song I began to condition my hair. Looking to my right I saw what looked to be a speaker and instinctively I moved toward it. It was, and I had a glass covering to protect it, it was also faced away from the water which helped. Then I got an idea.

I grabbed for my bag after drying off some and looked for my phone. Plugging it in I turned it to my second favorite surface song, since I already sung my favorite. Once the music bean playing I turned it up, louder and louder seeing as how I was the only one here.

When you're ready come and get it (x2)  
Na na na (x3)

When you're re-e-a-dy (x2)

I was thoroughly enjoying this, it was a feeling I wasn't used too. I was scrubbing my hair and shaking my body back and forth to the beat of the song happily enjoying my privacy.

When you're ready come and get it  
Na na na (x3)

You ain't gotta worry it's an open invitation  
I'll be sittin' right here real patient  
All day all night I'll be waitin'…

I froze when I heard the laughing coming from behind me and widened my eyes. It was a man's voice, and I was not dressed for a man, I wasn't dressed at all. I began to panic and look for something to cover myself with, unfortunately there was only one of those hair towels, one that couldn't rap around my body but could still maybe cover my parts if I lay it out right. Then I heard his voice, and I could only imagine that devilish smirk on his face.

"Well, Maple, I knew you wanted me but this is a bit overboard, even for you." He spoke with such confidence, and I still hadn't even turned to face him. I was so mad I wasn't even embarrassed. Swiftly in one movement, I dashed for the hair towel and covered myself successfully.

I looked up at an also shirtless Drew with a dirty towel over his shoulders and his jersey in his hand. He was leaning against the side of the shower, which put him pretty close; the showers were barely big enough for one. His arms were across his toned chest with his legs crossed as well, and that infamous smirk, it was there also. He was smelly and sweaty with his dirty football pants still on, thankfully…unlike me. Instead of having perfect hair is was very messy, with bits of dirt here and there. I found it very un-Drew of him to allow dirt in his hair.

I snarled at him and his smirk only widened. "You know Maple, I like the curves, I really didn't know you had them. Well you know with the clothes you wear, nobody can." He chuckled and stepped off the wall now supporting his own weight but still with his arms crossed. "You know I don't know many people who can stand the water that hot, I'm quite surprised you can actually. I personally like it a little but cooler than that, but it's still pretty hot." While he said this he stuck his hand out toward MY showers water and quickly retracted it shaking his hand off from the heat.

I narrowed my eyes while my blood boiled with pure hate. "Drew…What are you doing here, this is the GIRLS showers?" I spat with so much venom in my voice he put his hands in front of him and motioned for me to calm down.

Then he flicked that once luscious hair of his and said to me "Well now Maple, that's why I locked the door now isn't it?" he chuckled once more before adding, "Now if you'll excuse me while I shower, oh and Maple, your welcome too 'come and get it' if you'd like." He smirked, bowed, and walked off leaving me snarling at where he had once been.

How pompous of him to think I would EVER want him as my mate. In the mermaid world, once you pick your mate, they are your mate for life. AND I WOULD NEVER WANT HIM!

I moved the curtain that he had opened back into its place and continued my shower after turning off my music, and after sometime I heard a light humming noise. _Drew. _How dare he come in the girls shower and just interrupt my peace, he even saw me naked. Well, just my back side but how arrogant can someone get.

Deciding to just let it go for now I promptly finished my shower and reached for my phone, and after successfully texting Dawn to tell her to pick me up I went to the sink to brush my teeth. After a while I had my hair in a nice white towel while another white one encased my body and I was thoroughly scrubbing at each and every tooth.

Then, he decided it would be just the perfect time to get out of the shower. Drew walked over to the sink I was at seeming rather content with his actions. I, meanwhile, stopped brushing and stared with narrowed eyes full of hate at him, if only eyes could kill.

He laughed and smirked, then proceeded to say "Well hello there May, may I ask how your shower was?" with this he reached into his bag and began to pull his tooth brush out of his bag. Seeing the opportunity, I decided to take it.

"Just fine thank you." I said through gritted teeth. He smirked once more and reached for the water turning on the cold instead of the hopeful hot, oh well, I'll make do.

When he went to wet his deep green toothbrush I quickly heated the water to 99 degrees, which promptly burned his hand and giggled with glee.

Shaking his burnt hand he frowned and mumbled about turning on the cold and how much good that had done him, then he looked at me as I was giggling and frowned and narrowed his eyes while shaking his head. "You enjoyed that…didn't you?"

This time I full on laughed, how couldn't I? His girlish reaction was just too funny. "Oh Drew, and here I thought you could handle a little bit of warm water." Then he smirked and laughed a genuine laugh. Quite unexpected of him, I would have thought he would've tried to protect his pride but no, instead he laughed with me.

That's when I noticed the gleaming red surface on his bare chest. All he had was a towel, so his chest, and the gold encased necklace reaching just above his belly button, was exposed. The red icy surface looked to be cold, but I could feel the heat radiating off of it. _Fire. Of all the people or creatures in the world that could have it, it has to be him? _

Instinctively I went to reach for it but his words stopped me. "You know May, if you want me so bad you could always drop the towel." He leaned in when he said this making him within punching distance, so I did, I promptly punched his chest and he winced at the force.

"Ugh, you dimwit, I was looking at the pendant not your hideous flesh!" He stopped smirking when I said this, and he looked down and grasped the pendant, my pendant. The Pendant of Fire. _Why won't the pendant burn him already? It's supposed to burn any who come into contact with it except me!_

His frown deepened and then he explained. "I wouldn't touch it if I were you. It will burn you, so far the only person it hasn't burned it me, and it used too, I think I just got used to it. It's so…weird? It seems to be made of ice yet every time I try to get a sample of the substance to test it simply won't break, it seems so fragile yet I've gotten Paul to put a hammer to it and the hammer broke before the pendant. Then, if it's ice how come it doesn't melt, and how can it be hot? It's so peculiar, I just don't know anything about it…" his voice seemed to fade, I had never seen this side of him before. He was brilliant, his speech, his demeanor, everything. It was just an act, and a good one.

"Anything, you don't know anything about it?" I asked rather concerned, it's not like I could just grad the pendant off his neck, he would have so many questions and it just won't go over well with Misty or Leaf.

His head rose and his voice had much sadness in it. "No, nothing." He was frowning again. I almost felt sorry for him, those brilliant emerald eyes were just so distraught over not knowing. I was going to try to ease his conscience but sadly my phone went off before I could. Dawn was outside.

Taking one last look at his sad face I raced into one of the shower stalls to get dressed and after successfully finding a pair of leggings and a pink hoody I dashed out of the girls shower without even saying goodbye to him, unfortunately though he had locked the door which I went face forward at. Soon after he called out after me, but I couldn't really understand what he said. Then I saw Dawn's horrified face as I hopped into the car. Looking at the entrance to the girls showers I realized you could see Drew, his showered features easily noticeable. Then I turned to Dawn to try and explain but she cut me off.

"Was that Drew?" she asked innocently but with a questioning look. Then she wiggled her neatly waxed eyebrows and gave me a look of knowing. Feeling rather embarrassed of the whole situation before I turned red, in anger as well.

"Drive Dawn, just drive…" I finished, sinking down to the bottom of the car to avoid making eye contact with Drew, who was just standing at the entrance staring at me in confusion scratching his head. Poor Drew, hopefully he won't be as distraught about this as he was about the pendant.

**SOOOOOOOOOOOOO, what did you think? Did you like it?**

**Contestshipping Right? Yeah anyway I gots some questions. **

**Did you like the chapter?**

**What do you think about the shower scene, to graphic or just right or not?**

**Which girl do you think goes with which pendant?**

**Do you like the story?**

**And of course, What would you like to see in the story, like how can I make it more appealing to you? By fixing stuff, adding stuff, what? Let me know! **

**Courtesy of, Jay Gatsby**


	6. Chapter 6

-Misty-

Ellen had returned a little over 20 minutes ago and since then Leaf and I had been arguing with her. She said she wouldn't explain her rash actions without everyone here. But when we heard the door open and slam shut we only heard more bickering from May and Dawn. I turned my head away from the door and looked at Ellen, "we are not finished with this; we will continue our discussion later." I said pointing at her and then I looked back at Dawn and May and scowled, was their problem really bigger than whatever spooked Ellen? I highly doubt it.

May sighed and told her "Trust me Dawn, nothing happened between me and Drew and did you ever hear what I was saying the whole car ride? He has it!" So Drew was involved, why am I not surprised? He or one of his friends always seemed to be the root of our problems. Dawn puffed out her cheeks and her eyes widened and her cheeks deflated, something had finally reached through her think skull. May then threw her hands in the air and sighed again, obviously frustrated.

Dawn gasped and threw her hand to her mouth. Leaf looked at me and mouthed, 'what's going on?' I gave her a confused expression and then looked back at Dawn when I heard her say "Drew has the Pendant of Fire?" Everyone gasped Except May and oddly, Ellen.

Her eyes widened and she looked up from the ground then promptly screamed in my ear saying "So I was right, he does have it!" We all looked at her strangely and she proceeded to tell us her story.

She cleared her throat and began, "So I was looking at the game okay…"

"More like a certain player." Dawn interrupted and earned herself a scowl. She looked around and shrugged, "What?" she exclaimed.

"Okay so I was looking at the _game…" _Ellen began again, "And I thought I felt the Vardin." Upon hearing everyone's gasps she quickly motioned for us to calm down. "They are not actually here, I just thought I felt them, so I looked around the field thinking that if they were on our side then we would have felt them already and if they were in the others sides stands they be making their way to the field to get to our side to…yeah" she looked down and clenched her fists then looked back at us. "That's when I saw Thomas, he was taking the armor stuff off and I saw it, I saw the glint. He had a golden chain around his neck and as soon as I saw it I felt the connection, the one I have with the Pendant of Earth…my Pendant of Earth. At first I couldn't rap my mind around the fact that he had it so I took the car and went for a ride and convinced myself that what he had wasn't it, that it wasn't the real thing." She looked at May and continued. "But if Drew has the Pendant of Fire, which you're sure he does right?" May nodded slowly, then Ellen sighed and looked to the ground. "Then maybe Thomas really does have the Pendant of Earth…" she let her voice trail off.

We were all shocked, how too to annoying, stupid, immature, crazy boys have our pendants and be able to keep them from us for a whole week? Ellen told her story, now it's time to hear Mays. "Okay May, your turn. Tell us what happened." I told her sternly, this is a major breakthrough, now we only had to find three more pendants.

May turned to me sharply and sighed, then she began. "So I was taking my shower and Drew showed up…"

-Ash-

When Drew had walked in the door all showered and clean we knew he had showered at the school but we did not expect for him to shower in the girls shower, especially not with May. After he had informed us Gary and Thomas thoroughly began pestering him saying that he had feelings for the brunette, which Drew quickly denied. Unfortunately for him though, they were not quitters. "Oh just admit it Drew, you like the chick! She's hot, and feisty, and you like her, don't you?" Gary taunted.

Drew looked thoroughly unpleased, and just looked straight at Gary with an annoyed look. "No", he said monotone. Then Thomas joined in again.

"Come on man the sooner you admit your undying feelings for May, the sooner we can tell her and surely piss her off for ya!" Thomas threw his right arm around Drew while he glared at Thomas with his empty soda in his left hand. Then Gary made some comment about how Drew will never get with May when she hates him as much as she does, which made Drew's eye twitch and he promptly crushed the can…poor can.

Drew then threw Thomas's arm off him and threw the soda can at Gary and said through clenched teeth, "The moment I start to like that parasite is the moment Ashy-Boy here admits he likes little miss water show!" he then pointed at me and stalked off to his room.

I proceeded to blush and look from Gary to Thomas, who both had devilish grins. "So Ashy-Boy, ya got somethin' to say, say it." Gary said smugly. I fidgeted and squirmed under the attention. It was true, I liked Misty, maybe a little too much for my own good; but I would never tell Gary or Thomas that. I honestly wouldn't tell anyone because I knew she would never like me back, plus who could stand freaks like us? We didn't think we could ever have a proper relationship due to our _enhancements,_ so we didn't ever try, we actually forbid ourselves from it. This is why Thomas and Gary want to tell May, to discourage their relationship before Drew starts acting all nice, if he ever would. And they would tell Misty too and then she would never talk to me again, and that's exactly what I don't want.

So I decided to change the focus from me to Gary. "Well look whose talking Mr. Green." This made Gary falter. He had been sitting on the couch backwards using his arm to support his head with his knees on the couch, but now his arm dropped and he almost fell back into the table.

After picking himself up he looked around to see me triumphantly smiling while Thomas, Drew and Paul were all smirking. Then Thomas decided to tease him, "Wow, Ash actually won that, I'm honestly surprised." I nodded my head until I realized what he meant then I protested.

Gary looked around nervously then pointed at Thomas and accused him of liking Ellen, who then accused Paul of liking Dawn, who simply glared at him and grunted. "You didn't deny it! You do like her!" I yelled pointing at him; he was the only one of us to never ever develop feelings for a human, the only one to stay true to our promise.

Then he looked at me and grunted again. "No, I don't like that annoying troublesome girl." He spoke through clenched teeth. Then Thomas snapped his fingers and smirked at Paul who gave a confused look.

"If you don't like her then how come you blushed when she hugged you after lunch two days ago?" He said smugly. Everyone turned to Paul astonished; he was bright red, which I don't think I have ever seen him blush…ever. He then lunged for Thomas screaming how he was going kill him. Thomas ran for it knowing none of us had the strength to hold him back, or the stupidity to try. But right before he reached Thomas's face with his hand he stopped, grabbed some tape and a kitchen chair and threw Thomas in it. Then he proceeded to tape him to the chair. I turned to Drew and whispered "What's he doing?"

Drew looked at me annoyed and replied through his mind saying 'how the hell am I supposed to know? This is Paul, remember, his mind is always blocked.' Then he looked back at the struggling pair, well, Thomas was struggling, not Paul.

Paul looked up after successfully restraining Thomas and turned to us, "Where's the phone, or actually where's his phone?" He said pointing to a confused Thomas.

I looked at Drew once more before pointing to the couch. Then Paul went for it and started looking for someone's number. "Um, Paul what exactly is it that you're doing?" Drew inquired.

Without looking up he responded as if what he was doing was perfectly reasonable. "I'm calling Ellen and I am going to ask her out on a date pretending to be Thomas." Our eyes all widened, but Thomas flipped out he began struggling even more now only hurting himself in the process.

"Wait, why?" normally I knew better than to question Paul's actions, but this wasn't a normal situation. Then Paul looked up after pressing call and moved the phone to his ear.

"Because he embarrassed me and now I feel the need to embarrass him back, only more than he did with me. Plus we do need to ruin his little relationship with her that's forming now don't we? Well, I'm killing two birds with one stone, so shut up…" he then turned toward Thomas and smirked. Thomas was wide eyed and abnormally red in the face, it was obviously we all liked those girls, screw what we say. And honestly, I think if Ellen found out he liked her I don't think she would take to kindly to it.

Then we heard Paul speak through the phone, "Hi Ellen this is Thomas, I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me tomorrow…" then he put the phone on speaker and placed it on the table for everyone to hear, including Thomas who kept mumbling through the tape on his mouth like there was no tomorrow.

-Leaf-

"Wow May, that sounds…terrifying to say the least." I felt terribly sorry for her, she had practically been eye raped! Those evil boys had to pay, especially Gary, and Drew too.

Then Dawn spoke up for the first time tonight, "Wait guys, if Drew and Thomas both have one of the pendants, then isn't it safe to guess that the other three boys have the other three pendants? I mean what are the odds that there are five pendants and five best friends who we know two have one of the pendants?" she inquired.

Misty looked up at her and agreed. "Dawns right, but we need to make sure, we need to get the other pendants too..." she trailed off in thought then her whole face brightened. "We need to search their rooms!" She exclaimed.

Was she serious? "But how, it's not like we can just waltz in and be like I'm looking for five pendants, do you have them lying around somewhere?" I asked in a retarded tone with my hands on my hips and my eyes cross eyed staring up at the ceiling. May and Dawn laughed while Ellen smiled, Misty only looked at me annoyed.

"Well no actually I was thinking of getting them to invite us over somehow…" She began to stroke her chin then continued. "We might need to be their partners for a school project or…" but before she could finish Ellen's phone went off.

Ellen checked who is was and looked thoroughly displeased. "Ugh, guys it's Thomas, I swear this boy's has issues about timing, it's like 10:50 and he calls. Idiot. Well I better go give him a piece of my mind." With that she began to get off the floor which we were all on in the same position, but I stopped her.

"No you silly girl we wanna hear it, put the damn thing on speaker and put it in the middle of our little star formation goin' on. " I told her.

Then Dawn giggled and added, "Yeah Ellen, make us laugh!" and she smiled and got back on her stomach and put a pillow under her head like the rest of us. After placing the phone in the middle she answered the call and put it on speaker.

"What the hell do you want at this time of night you dumbass?" she rested her head on her hand and started twirling a piece of hair while she looked up at the ceiling. Dawn and I giggled while May dug her face in her pillow to cover her laughter.

"Hi Ellen this is Thomas, I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me tomorrow…" after that her arm fell leaving her head with no support. We all gasped and Dawn wiggled her eyebrows while May and smirked. Ellen looked completely horrified.

"WHAT!" she squealed in the highest voice I think I've ever heard from her. "TELL ME WHY ON EARTH I WOULD WANT TO SUBJECT MYSELF TO THAT KIND OF TORCHER AND…" before she could finish Misty swiftly put the phone on mute. Ellen turned her focus toward Misty now, and began screaming like it was the apocalypse.

Misty raised her hands and motioned for her to calm down. "Quite Ellen, someone could hear you! We need a way to get into the guys rooms and fate slaps us with an opportunity and you're just going to spit on it? Hell no, you're going on that date." Misty said and folded her arms, she was right, and Ellen knew it, which is why she immediately paled.

"I'm not going on that date Misty, I'm not." She spoke much calmer now.

Misty was about to retort but I pitched into her cause. "Yes you are, and you're going to schedule it for 6:30, at a fancy restaurant too. One where you'll have to dress up, that way you'll be there for a while." After I saw everyone's confused faces I sighed and began to explain. "With her being on a date the only chance to snoop she'll get is when she asks to go to the bathroom, which she can only do once. Now if she gets Thomas out of the house at 6:30 tomorrow, their house will be empty. Gary and Drew are going to some carnival tomorrow to help fundraise for the team, while Ash and Paul are going to the dentist right Misty?" I asked looking at her and she nodded. "Well, there's an open house if Thomas is kept busy. So that's when you're going to schedule it, got it?" Ellen gulped and responded.

"Wow Leaf, you really know their schedules don't you?" She asked wide eyed.

I snorted, "That's only because Gary flirts with me 99 out of 100 chances he gets, and every other girl may I add."

They laughed and May picked up the phone, "Well Ellen, looks like our boy toy is getting anxious…" Then we realized how this must look to him after we heard several 'hellos' coming from the phone, wonderful, he probably suffered, he deserved it in my book.

Sighing Ellen took the phone and took it off mute. She looked at use one last time and gulped before saying, "Okay, but I'm only free at 6:30, and I swear if this is going to be some cheap ass date I will severely punish you." She bit her lip and looked at us trying to see if she didn't sound to, demanding. We all gave her thumbs up and we heard silence. Maybe he wasn't expecting a yes?

"Um, really, I mean you don't have to and what happened to the 'TELL ME WHY ON EARTH I WOULD WANT TO SUBJECT MYSELF TO THAT KIND OF TORCHER' girl?" he seemed surprised, maybe he really didn't expect her to say yes, but then again, he would be a fool if he had.

Ellen's face contorted and she snarled at him. "Well fine, if you don't want to I'll just hang up now, it is 11 o'clock after all, I mean who the hell calls someone at 11? Huh? Well what exactly do you have to say for yourself Mr. Fancy pants?" We were all stunned at her little outburst, then we hear chuckling coming from the phone, did his voice change?

"So what time do you want me to pick you up…sweetheart?" Misty immediately snatched the phone and ran with it getting all the details about their date while May and I tried desperately to contain Ellen and her temper, Dawn meanwhile was having a laughing fit on the floor. This was going to be a long, rough night. _Perfect!_

_Meanwhile..._

_-someone new-_

My webbed foot made contact with what the parasites called sand. It was smooth and cold in the night air. Hearing noises I looked up to see bright lights and more metal heaps carrying the parasites themselves. How quaint, they had found a way to destroy the air faster than before. I sniffed and only smelt pollution, just like my ocean home. Still dripping with salt water from the sea, I began my trek up the dunes and towards the buzzing city. Be ready Princesses, cause Sindar is BACK!

**_So Review and tell me what you thought! Great thanks, oh and so did i surprise you with Ellen's Pendant? What about the adventure that Dawn, Misty Leaf and May are about to have? Do you think the next chapter will be exciting?_**

**_ Courtesy of,_**

**_ Jay Gatsby_**


	7. Chapter 7

-Dawn-

After we had agreed on the date we all agreed on the fact that we weren't going to school the next day so we could strategize everything. Fortunately though the girls put me in charge of Ellen and her appearance! I was so happy, now here I am in Ellen's room perfecting everything we bought and everything we've already done while Leaf, May, and Misty are going over the plan which they apparently tell me later after Ellen's all dolled up; this is so much fun!

"Could you lighten up with the makeup Dawn, I look like a raccoon here." Ellen screeched from underneath my tight grip. And I beg to differ; I was giving her a cat eye! We had already done her hair and put her in the dress, now I was finishing up the last of the makeup; just in time too, it was 6:12 and Thomas has said he would pick her up at 6:25. He better not be late.

As I stepped back to truly gather all her beauty I sighed, 'why can't I look like her!' The, feeling the need to defend my skills in makeup, I pouted. "You definitely don't look like a raccoon thank you! If anything you look like a beautiful princess, you a beautiful FISH princess." I said while pinching her cheeks and after I let go her face scrunched up and she stuck her tongue out rather childishly. "You could do without that…" I said catching her tongue.

She snorted and swatted my hand away while the others walked in and gasped. "Oh my god Ellen, you look beautiful!" May cooed.

Leaf giggled, "Oh look at me, I'm a pretty princess," She said batting her eyelashes and clasping her hands together.

Misty just smiled and gave her thumbs up and proceeded to whack Leaf with her hand for taunting Ellen. Just then the doorbell rang, it was time! I looked at Ellen to congratulate her on being the first one of us to catch the eye of a mortal but she looked utterly terrified and was gripping the wooden chair she was in like it was all she had. "Umm, guys, what exactly to people _do_ on dates?" She mumbled and everyone paled. We had absolutely no idea. Then the door went again, was he nervous? Awe.

Then Leaf grabbed Ellen by her _leather jacket _and threw her to her feet saying "Who cares, just wing it!" She smiled and said "Go get him girl!" while she continuously pushed her forward. Ellen was clutching onto anything and everything trying desperately to slow her and Leaf down, but to no avail. But she was however taking a very long time to get to the door, so I'll have to do something about that. I quickly shoved them both with everything I had just as May opened the door to allow our guest in. Sadly for Ellen, she fell right into his arms.

-Thomas-

"Drive faster bro you're gonna make me late!" Ash wailed from the back seat while Paul was looking less and less pleased in the passenger seat. Sighing I actually felt bad for the brute who got me into suck a terrible, yet exciting and enjoyable, mess.

I turned to look at Ash through the mirror and chuckled. "Well it's not my fault someone forgot to tell me that I had to take them to their dentist appointment which was at the same time as the date some smartass got me into." Now I turned my head to look at Paul who turned my way angrily.

"You could've said no to the girl." He replied through gritted teeth. Well at least he called her a girl and not something else.

"Say no? I, correction, you were the one who asked her out saying it was me in the first place. You can't just ask someone that and then say no, plus I'll admit it just this once, I like her. So tell me, why on earth would I say no, this could be my one chance to be with her in romantic setting seeing as how I'm pretty damn sure you're never going to let me ask her out again." I wanted to go on this date so badly, sure the guys and I have gone on dates before but that was different, that was with a girl who didn't really like us for us and a girl who only wanted something, a something we wanted as well which is why we said yes. But Ellen wasn't like that, and I actually liked her, meaning this would be the first date I had with a girl that didn't want me, but liked me.

Paul snorted then laughed sarcastically. "This is why you shouldn't go on a date with her. You actually like her which means you could expose our secret of something, it just won't work. She's a mortal, an immature, stupid, and pathetic mortal." As he said the last part he looked at me, that made my blood boil, he knew Ellen wasn't immature, if anything she was more mature than any of us. He also knew she wasn't stupid, she actually beat out me and Gary in class rank which put her at third, without being a mind reader. But the last thing ticked me off; if anyone was being pathetic it was us. We were so afraid of what could happen to us if we developed feelings for a girl so much so that we sectioned ourselves of from any girl we liked and got the other boys to ruin our relationship with them. It hurt every time but we continued to do it thinking it was for the better, but we were only running away.

I stared at the steering wheel for a while then looked up, damn this red light, I could see the dentist's office right in front of me but this red light was taking forever. Perhaps we should name this light the baby light, because I swear someone could have a baby through the duration of this light, possible two if you're lucky. As soon as the light turned green I sped off toward the dentist and once I got there I came to an abrupt stop sending a stupid Ash flying to the front, and that's why you wear seat belts children.

As Paul flipped Ash back angrily I continued to stare at the steering wheel until his voice brought me out of it. "I hope there's no hard feeling, you know because of a _girl._" And he hopped out of the car. I looked at him then and realized something.

"What would you do if I said that about Dawn?" He turned around and starred at me.

"I suppose I would have to severely beat you, then admit that your right." And he turned and stalked off with Ash close behind. I heard his voice in my head before they entered the building, 'Don't worry, I'll be sure to smack him for ya!' I laughed sadly and drove off heading for the girl's house. Once I got there I realized I wasn't even late and I had some time to spare, but I walked up the steps to their dorm building and took the elevator up to their floor.

After ringing the doorbell the first time I realized just how nervous I was. I began messing with me hair and tie making sure it was all right. I looked down at my red tie and suit hoping that I didn't out do her, which I had learned from experience never to look better than the girl. But she had said a fancy restaurant, and I was taking her to one of the fanciest; lucky girl.

I rang the doorbell a second time and looked at my watch, maybe I am late and I'm just reading my watch wrong. Flipping it over didn't help though, I highly doubt its' 61:9. Though that didn't ease my conscience, only when the door opened to reveal an ecstatic May did I finally calm down. However, as soon as she waved for me to come in I felt added weight to my own and caught it easily. It wasn't very much, not even nearly enough to send me toppling over, which meant the added weight was just resting in my arms.

Looking down I saw an embarrassed Ellen, then she flung herself out of my grasp and stabled herself while brushing off non-existent dirt form her skirt. She scrambled for words and managed out "I-it was…um, we you see it-t, it was their f-fault!" she kept turning and fidgeting while pointing behind her at the other three girls. Leaf was on the floor while Dawn had both her hands covering her mouth and Misty was behind her leaving her mouth wide open. Finally understanding I chuckled and turned to May.

"Thank you May for not participate in their shenanigans." She laughed lightly and Ellen grew angry clenching her fists at her side and no longer stuttering.

"I'll have you know it was in no way my fault, they were the ones dragging me across the floor!" She tried to look menacing but her embarrassed face gave her away.

I chuckled once more and added, "Nice to know how nervous I make you." Her eyes widened and she immediately screeched about how 'un-nervous' she was. When I finished laughing at her I finally took in what she was wearing and how she looked.

Her beautiful bright blonde hair was straightened with small bump and a couple of small braids throughout allowing the streaks of dirty blonde highlights easily visible. Then she had a soft tan leather jacket draped over her petit shoulders. It perfectly matched the sparkled champaign colored dress, which was a one shoulder and snugly fit her small waste and flowed out to just under mid-thigh making her dress very beautiful and modest. Then she had glossed lush lips contrasting her toned skin, and along with the black cat eye she had made her teal eyes shine brightly. She was beautiful, I had always known that but now I was stuck, absorbed in her beauty. Only when she slapped me and pointed to her eyes saying they were up there did I snap out of it. I was taller than her 5'3 by 8 inches so it must have looked like I wasn't looking at her eyes.

"Got it, your eyes are up here." I said flicking her nose. Grabbing her arm gently I swiftly made my way out the door as she reached for her heels in Dawns arms. "Don't worry ladies, I'll return your gift to me by midnight." I laughed as Ellen threw a fit and turned to the other girls, obviously Leaf was the only one who got my message; she was the only one to reply.

"Undisturbed?" She asked as I opened the door for an already angry Ellen. Man I could piss her off easily, why she even said yes I had no idea. I turned to Leaf before saying 'undisturbed' and drove off while Ellen was putting her also sparkly champaign heels on. They spiraled up to her ankle and were going to easily make her 5'6.

Laughing I realized I couldn't contain my excitement, but when I turned to Ellen to ask if she liked Italian, I saw her starring out the window of my red corvette. I don't think anyone could fathom how badly I wished to read her mind, just to understand or get one snit bit of each thought that flew threw her brain. She was as brilliant as she was stunning and none of the mind readers understood how she could beat me and Gary in the rank, but she did. Leaf did to; she beat Gary but not me. The other girls were close behind, I think Misty even tied with Gary, and Dawn and May were right after them. To get that high in the class rank without our ability showed just how smart they were, and for them to beat two of us, was incredible, and we knew it.

-Dawn-

I giggled looking at Ellen's displeased face as they drove off. "Undisturbed?" I quoted, and Leaf looked at me with a grin.

"Don't question it." She laughed out. Misty smirked and winked at me then followed Leaf to the kitchen where May was already seated going through our black bags checking off item by item.

May sighed happily and gave us a thumbs up. "Well, that should do it." With that she hopped off the stool and made her way with all of our bags to the living room. Putting my hands in the air in confusion I complained about walking to the living room and that we should just stay in the kitchen. May giggled but her face turned stern afterwards. "Dawn, if you aren't prepared to walk to the living room from the kitchen then how do you expect us to be prepared to trust you to run for your like if one of the boys comes home early?" I pouted but decided to let it go.

Misty placed her hands on both of our shoulders. "Alright you two, no arguing from this point on got it? We'll need the both of you if we want to get through this. So does everyone remember their assignments?" She asked looking from person to person. Leaf and May nodded happily while I just kind of looked at Misty with a BIG smile on my face. When she looked at me her face fell and I felt a sharp pain of the back of my neck and noticed her hand was no longer on my shoulder. "You my friend get to search Paul's room and their kitchen. Got it?" She cocked her head to the side while she asked me.

"Well that's great but what are you guys doing?" I honestly had no idea. Wait, I was doing fashion stuff! I shouldn't know! "Hey wait, how should I know what the plan is, I was responsible for Ellen, remember?" I pointed stiffly at Misty who just looked up and said 'oh yeah' like she hadn't just hit me.

Leaf cleared her throat and shoved Misty out of the way. "Okay so we will have two time periods where we are split then one where we're all together. Gary and Drew leave for their thing at 7 meaning we'll arrive at 7:10 to give them time to actually leave, which means we will have roughly till 9:30 seeing as how Ash and Paul are both getting a check-up." Seeing my confusion she decided to explain. "Ash hates the dentist almost as much as you hate the color black." Yep, I HATE black, it's why I don't go out with black guys, I know its racist but I'm not a racist, I swear. One of my best friends in my kingdom is black, I just have a type. "So the boys enlist the help of Paul, to restrain him. Anyway, that means we need to be out of that house by 9:10. That gives us 2 hours to work with. Now, each of us will spend the first 45 minutes searching the guys rooms, for me Gary, Misty has Ash, you have Paul, and May has Drew. We had told Ellen to text us if Thomas had the pendant on or not, which if he doesn't then that will be a problem for us, we were assuming that since it was a nice restaurant then he would wear it, plus those pendants, their something you either never wear or something you always wear. So we assumed that they wear them every day seeing as how Drew and Thomas wore theirs to the game. Now, we will spend the next 45 minutes looking in the other four rooms in their so called 'dorm'. That place is more like a mansion to me but anyway who cares what little Leaf thinks." She mumbled the last sentence and dozed off mumbling some incoherent words; I had to violently shake her to bring her out of her trance. "Oh, right, umm. Okay, Your looking in the kitchen and don't let May in there, we all know how much she likes food. May has the office, I have the game room and Misty; she has the living room. Then we will all regroup and begin searching the front and back yard. Misty and I in the front and you and May in the back, then I will sound the alarm and we will dive into their pool and swim through the underwater tunnel to the school pool and go from there. That way they will never expect us. By the way does anyone else think it's not just a little weird how that there is an underwater tunnel reaching from all specialty dorms to the schools pool?" She raised her hands to add effect, but she was right. "

Maybe this school was built by mermaids?" I chirped. That got me another whack form Misty.

May laughed at me and I just threw her some glares while I rubbed my sore head. "Who cares," She began, "it's not like someone is just hoping to catch a couple of mermaids and even if they are we can just change back into humans and use the breath-y thing-y in bag I packed, which I packed just for that reason, thank you!" She stated triumphantly.

I glared at her some more but I had other questions in mind so I turned to Leaf. "Wait, if we are assuming that they wear the pendants everyday then how come we are searching their 'mansion' for the pendants?"

Leaf smirked and turned to Misty who smirked as well. "Because we're not looking for the pendants!" They said simultaneously. Then Leaf to another glance at Misty and continued for her. "We are looking for evidence that they are the ancestors of the protectors and if they have any knowledge of the mer-world at all. If they do then all we have to do is remind them about the rituals that they need to perform and return home, job done. But if they aren't then, we need to find a way to get the pendants back; also we are looking for evidence that the other three boys have the other three pendants. And if they are mortals who are ancestors but do not know of the mer-world then we need to consult the guild about what to do. I honestly don't know if they'll want us to get the pendants or not; I really have no idea." Then she began making her way toward the door grabbing her bag and slinging it over her shoulder. But suddenly she stopped and swiveled around to face us on one foot. "Also," She started to grin and laughed a little, "look for something we can use against them, you know, something embarrassing." With that she snapped and happily skipped off toward the door leaving everyone else giggling.

**So I wanted to include the whole date and invasion scene in this chapter but its five pages as it is and that's my limit on my chapters. All but like the first two are five pages, they are like four and a half or something. Anyway, I might post the next chapter tomorrow though, because it is already written and I really want to post and I really want to post a chapter on the one month anniversary of this story which if you haven't noticed is tomorrow and I really want it to be a good chapter like the next one. But I also think it's kinda ridiculous to post 3 chapters in 4 days so I might not. Just review and tell me what you want me to do and yeah. Also, have I FINALLY described Ellen and Thomas enough, I mean it only took me like 7 WHOLE CHAPTERS TO DO IT! But yeah tell me if you want me to post the next chapter tomorrow or not and also tell me if there's a scene or something else that you would like to see in my story, I might just consider it. Also, review if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them!**

**Oh P.S.- Come the next chapter i will have a poll on my page because i do have one question. Thanks!**

** Courtesy of,**

** Jay Gatsby**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys so yeah I posted it on the one month anniversary. At first I wasn't going to but then Fprmr1 said I should and if you haven't noticed I like honor that beastly author for their skill and basically whatever they advise I pretty much go ahead and do… so yeah they told me to post the chapter today and so I did so if ya want you can thank them for the chapter, otherwise you would have had to wait a week for it. Sorry but I hope you like it!**

-Ellen-

I laughed softly. I was enjoying myself; Thomas was unearthly funny when he lost his cocky, playboy attitude. "So you mean to tell me, Thomas Attkins, the big bad defensive end is _afraid_ of thunder and lightning?" I just couldn't grasp the idea of it.

He nodded and reached for another French fry. Upon arriving at the five star Italian restaurants the man at the valet parking booth promptly began to flirt with me, so Thomas sped off like a greedy little boy and informed me that we were going to Fuddruckers instead. Now we were happily chopping down on French fries and soda having a great time; unbelievably. I had texted Leaf and the others some time ago to tell them that Thomas was in fact wearing my pendant, something I had yet to ask about, but I was just too wrapped up in our conversation.

"Well my dear Ellen, technically I am afraid of thunder, not lighting." He chuckled and threw another fry down his throat while he leaned back in his chair, arms crossed behind his head. When he did this I realized how truly handsome he was. He had taken off the jacket and draped it over his chair like I had, allowing full vision of his black dress shirt. It didn't do much for his body, but he had rolled up the sleeves making his muscular arms extremely noticeable when he stretched the shirt like he was.

I giggled and responded, "So? What's the difference Mr. Thunder and Lighting?" I leaned onto the table and folded my arms over one another and smirked; was there even a difference in the two? I didn't think so.

He smirked and brought his earthy eyes off me for practically the first time tonight and looked down. He brought his body to the same position as me and leaned forward, putting our faces inches apart. "One is a sound, and one is an image. One you can see, while one you can't. One is loud and is silent. People are afraid of what they cannot see, Ellen." He said this with such seriousness it almost frightened me, but it had the opposite effect, it helped him. It made him seem invincible, except to thunder of course.

Stupidly I brought my teal eyes to his earthy one, and instantly I was caged in. "Why are little children afraid of the dark, grown adults the ocean and night. It is because they can't see through it." We stayed like that for a while, then abruptly he leaned back and closed his eyes, seemingly recapturing his thoughts.

When they opened again he stared at the ceiling, "What are you afraid of?" he asked and brought his eyes back down to me.

"I'm afraid of heights." I lied. I couldn't tell him; I was afraid for my people, afraid of the Vardin, afraid if the guild ever found out a couple of mortals had the pendants, I was afraid of losing him; though I would never admit that, especially not to him.

Unfortunately though, he didn't seem to but it. Squinting his eyes he leaned on the table once more bringing his face close to mine. "Realllly," he drawled. "Then I guess it's a good thing I didn't take you to a carnival." I smiled and laughed softly looking down for a moment before bringing my eyes back to him.

Time to change the subject; I cocked my head and furrowed my eyebrows. "So, about that gold chain around your neck, what is it exactly?" I inquired; if I had said 'pendant' he would get suspicious considering most of the chain and the pendant itself was neatly tucked under his shirt leaving only the upper part of the chain around his neck visible.

He grew a confused look then he understood and looked down at his chest and began to pull on the chain bringing the beautiful pendant out. Smiling he told me, "Well look who has the eyes of a hawk. You're smart, why don't you tell me what it is?" and he took off the pendant and neatly placed it on the center of the table before leaning back once again.

Smiling on the outside, I was smirking on the inside, ecstatic that I was finally able to touch the beautiful accessory. Little did I know, that was about to become my big mistake.

-May-

"WHAT THE FREAKING HELL!" I was practically screeching. Upon arriving we met a little friend humans like to call a lock, something we had in our dorm but had no idea how to use. So we decided to try the front, and when that was locked as well Dawn and Misty swiftly made a key of ice and motioned for us to go in. I, being the smartass I am, just waltzed in and fell into a trap. This one however was my third one.

Everyone was laughing hysterically behind me and I was not enjoying this. Turning around I shot each of them glares thoroughly shutting them up but they were still giggling softly. "Ha ha ha ha." I said unhappily making a face as I did so and I turned away from them.

Leaf burst out again while Dawn was on the verge of tears. Misty was patting me on my back steering clear of all paint. "May," she said laughing a little and placing her hand of my shoulder, "We've taken like 8 steps into the main hallway and your already covered in neon green, blue, and pink paint, your hair looks like you were born in the 60's, and you have a giant red stamp on your forehead saying 'dumbass'. I am truly sorry but, I'm going to laugh." And after she said this she lost all her composer and started laughing at me. Sorting I continued walking…only to fall into another trap. This time I stepped on a loose floor board and it promptly flew up to greet my face with its hard surface.

"Ow," I muttered and Misty and Leaf had to hold onto one another to support each other. Rubbing my head I was muttering old curses to the both of them and Drew, only he would do this. "Well if the two of you are so smart then why don't you lead the way, hmm?" I asked snobbishly and folded my arms over my blue chest.

Leaf and Misty looked up at each other in between fits of laughter and nodded at one another. "Alright, we will." Leaf then took the lead with Misty in close pursuit and I motioned for Dawn to walk in front of me.

Suddenly we heard screaming and looked forward to see Leaf and Misty doused in wet plaster and chicken feathers. My turn, I laughed hysterically with Dawn by my side. As we heard the thin layer of plaster drying Misty and Leaf were spitting out clumps of feathers and plucking them from their wet hair. "Now that's worse than 'dumbass'." I stated proudly flinging my arm of Dawns shoulder and pointing to the two very unhappy girls in front of me. Dawn looked on the sad scene with a hand over her mouth while she reached over with the other one and plucked a white feather from Leafs ear. She muttered a thank you in return and plucked one from her other ear. Dawn only nodded smiling happily.

Then she turned to me with concern written all over her face. "Should we be helping them or something?" She then looked back at the pair and began plucking feathers from the drying plaster.

"Naa, it's thin enough that it should just crack and allow them to be able to move freely. But they might be really uncomfortable." I giggled when they both shot me deathly glares and I just stuck my tongue out at them, only to taste pink paint. Quickly retreating it I heard Dawn lightly laugh.

"You guys are ridiculous; making fun of May, then getting caught in a prank yourselves? I actually think you all are the dumbasses." She quoted pointing to my still throbbing forehead.

Leaf snorted, "I would hardly call that a prank Dawn, and it's not our fault this place is booby-trapped." She grunted out moving to allow the dry plaster to crack with each movement.

Dawns face took on surprise and she laughed lightly, "Hell yeah that was a prank," She said pointing at the contraption that had poured plaster all over them. "If it wasn't you would be lying on the floor tied up with the police cops on their way!" And she pointed her finger upwards closing her eyes bobbing her head up and down with her other hand on her hip.

"Actually Dawn, it would be cops or police, not both." Misty corrected and Dawn pouted but became quite cheerful again soon after.

Sighing I realized we still hadn't began our search, but at least we had made it to the living room, now we only had to ascend the staircase to their rooms. "Come on guys, we need to start looking." I said after hearing Leaf mumble about 'So much for leaving without a trace' and I looked back at all the paint and bits of plaster on the floor.

I heard a clicking noise and turned to see Dawn walking up the stair case eyes closed, hand on hip, finger pointed toward the sky, lecturing us about how to sniff out a prank and she swiftly ducked to allow a vanilla pie to fly right into my face. Then another click, another vanilla pie, once I heard the third click I moved to the side allowing it to land in Misty's face and turned toward Dawn. She was triggering every single 'prank' and dodging every single one all while lecturing us with her eyes closed walking up the stairs sideways; then another click and another pie to the face for Misty. She obviously learned by the second one two for she ducked and make a clear path for Leafs face. In grand total, 2 for me, 2 for Misty and 4 for Leaf; the last one Dawn triggered threw three pies at once. I looked at them completely ignoring what Dawn had to say and shook my head while I began my way up the 'cleared' steps. Once I was 3 stairs away from the top I caught the last bit of Dawns lecture.

"And that's how you can find a prank, like this one!" She said with her eyes still closed and I watched in horror as she pressed down on the top of the staircase making every stair slant forming one big slide. I screamed as I painfully fell onto Leaf who was clutching the railing so she wouldn't fall. Unfortunately though the impact of ME was too much for her to hold on and we were both sent toppling over one another until we hit Misty at the bottom. Struggling to get up we all glared at Dawn as she was singing 'la da de dum da' over and over while skipping toward the bedrooms searching for Paul's.

After Misty had made a stair case out of water we climbed back up with our aching legs and trudged toward the rooms as well.

-Thomas-

I watched as Ellen handled the pendant while my face contorted as I almost jumped from complete shock. When you put that darn Pendant on a scale it weighs close to a ton but when I'm holding it, it barely weighs a pound. I'm the only one it does that to though, how can _she _pick it up? I had seemingly thought out loud as she asked me to repeat what I had said. Pointing to the pendant with confusion written all over my body, not just my face, I repeated my thought. "How can you lift the pendant off the table?"

After I had finished my sentence she froze, and looked down toward it while anxiously flipping it over in her hands. "Well I um…" She began stuttering over her words then suddenly smiled and looked back up at me. "What do you mean?" She asked calmly; where I couldn't read her impressive mind I had gotten pretty good at reading her body language, and if you knew what to look for you could easily tell if she was lying, which she was. That would make twice tonight. Odd, she doesn't normally lie very often, only when asked about personal stuff.

I was going to pester her about this situation, it could mean trouble for me and the others, but soon after she replied she shivered harshly. Then she furrowed her eyebrows while setting the pendant down on the able lightly and looking around the room. Suddenly she paled and her eyes grew wide with terror. I was on my way to turning around to see what exactly had scared the living day lights out of her when I felt a very unpleasant mind enter the building.

Turning fully I saw a scaled fish like man in robing with a long spear in his hand. The ridge on his head was scary enough but his webbed feet and hands added to the effect, not to mention his freaking blue scales. He was taller than the average man, standing at what looked to be 6'6 maybe taller and he had devilish teeth that protruded through his lips when they weren't parted. Add the talons on his three fingers and the scaled tail in and you've got every child's nightmare monster. What scared me most thought was not his looks, but his thoughts. 'The Princess of Earth shall part ways with the living tonight, shall not be that hard to locate her either,' I looked at Ellen fearing the worst. 'All that is necessary is to detect the pale shivering one.' His thought rang through my mind over and over again; he was going to kill the pale shivering girl, just like the one sitting across from me. And in that one moment everything seemed to click; he was there to kill Ellen.

-Leaf-

After turning the door knob to Gary's very deep green room I was welcomed by a whole tub of earth worms and dirt. Great, thanks Gary, I love it, yay! I angrily stepped in growling while brushing off the dirt and many worms. After looking around the room I heard Misty screech loudly and figured Ash had the same trap as Gary. "It's just an earth worm Misty, they won't kill you!" May screamed back at her, obviously my assumption had been correct. After rolling my eyes I began to get to work filing through every piece of rubbish in the crummy room, unfortunately though, it was huge. Why do they get a specialty dorm? We're the princesses!

After minutes of searching I came upon a brown box with letters from the old language engraved in it. With a sudden excitement filling my body with energy I hurriedly opened the box to reveal enchantments and curses. I saw old trinkets from the past and began to toy with them, then I found letters from previous Holders of the brown box and I assumed they were from the old protects, noting that they were in the old language I realized that Gary and the others probably couldn't read them. Then I saw the smaller black leather box within the brown one. I felt the box slowly rubbing its elongated body up and down. Then slowly I opened it and found that at the bottom of the long box was velvet padding with the impression of a long necklace with a big heavy circle at the bottom. On the inner top of the box were golden engravings. It was obvious; this was used to store the pendant.

Where I can't read the old mermaid language I can make out one word; the title of my kingdom. It was the only word any of the royal families were forced to know by law. May knew fire, Misty water, Dawn air, and Ellen earth. I was about to touch the engraved word when I heard a sharp squeal come from further down the hallway.

I scrambled to my feet to Dawn shaking wildly. She was Pale and cold to the touch. "What the hell Dawn, I was almost finished…Dawn?" I saw Misty come out of Ash's room rubbing the back off her neck but as soon as she saw Dawn she froze.

She was muttering incoherently and shaking violently. "Their…their here, above the surface…they know…they know we left the sea…" She managed out finally.

I looked at misty and shook my head confused; who? "What, Dawn I'm afraid I can't help you and you can't help us if you won't tell us what's wrong!" I latched onto her shoulders trying desperately to calm her, but it was no good. I turned back to Misty asking "What do you think she meant?" and I raised my hand toward Dawn's face showing Misty she was completely out of it.

She only shook her head sadly, "Wish I knew, but I'm not done with Ash's room, its' really messy and disgusting in there. I swear he lives in a pigsty!" She threw her arms down at her side very displeased and I smiled softly before turning back to Dawn.

"You should go then, I'm done searching Gary's room, all I found was this, and it looks like he is the ancestor of one of the protectors." I said shaking the small black box in hand. Misty smiled and nodded before heading off toward her own personal circus. I looked at Dawn sadly and set the box on the floor before trying to shake her out of whatever state she was in, then I felt it too. I shivered harshly and became very cold in an instant. Widening my eyes I turned around yelling "THE VARDIN THEY'RE HERE! THAT'S WHAT DAWN MEANT!" Misty and May came bounding out of their boy's room wide eyed and pale. The Vardin were out to kill us, and we knew it. We also knew we had not packed anything to defend ourselves with. I turned to Dawn again and saw her nodding her head to hard and grabbed her face. "Dawn you have to calm down, yes you are the youngest and have never encountered the Vardin before but we have and they are not that scary, I promise." I was lying and May and Misty knew it. The Vardin were the scariest things to ever walk the planet in my view and in theirs too.

I felt a strong grip on my shoulder and I turned to see May. "We need to go, if they are here we might destroy the whole house, grab what you found and just take it. We need to get out of here, NOW!" she looked at me sternly, she wasn't the oldest but she was defiantly able to think on her feet, at times. Nodding I slapped Dawn which made her mad enough to stop shaking and scream at me. I told her about the new plan and she scampered off toward Paul's room once more. I stood where I was for a second, then hurried off to scout the house for and members of the devilish group. No sigh of them, thankfully. I made my way back to the stair case and as I was in the process of climbing I stopped and looked down at my feet and the stairs. Misty was only able to bend water to her will and hold it there for a duration of time and we didn't have Dawn there to change the molecular structure and freeze the water, which meant the stairs should have flooded back down to the floor. Realization dawned on me then, the Vardin were here, and they were very, very close. I slowly continued up the staircase looking for any of the Vardin. I made it up safely and saw everyone else in the hallway all holding a brown box similar to the one in Gary's room, only May was also holding a small sliver one and a big black one as well.

"Stuff them in your bags, we need to go. The stairs." I pointed toward the stair and eventually everyone got the hint. But what I didn't understand is why they haven't attacked us yet, they're obviously here, and they're obviously going to try to kill us, but why wait. As we were descending the stairs they unfroze which sent us all flying toward the ground. As this was happening I saw one of the greasy shadows appear in front of where we would land sword in hand, he was prepared to kill us in an instant. Dawn gasped at the mere sight of the horrifying creature. "MISTY!" I hollered and she seemed to understand. She immediately sent a fast steady stream of water hurdling toward the monster easily vanquishing it. And as we reached the bottom I saw twelve other demons weapons in hand. "Girls, looks like it's going to be hand to hand combat." I picked myself up and offered a hand to May smirking. I watched as she smirked as well and then Misty and finally Dawn. Sadly, I don't think this dorm will last through the night.

"3 on 1 guys, get ready." And after this I charged at two of the monsters latching onto their faces and swiftly dodging their blows. I continued to suck the life they once held right out of them and moved onto my next target. Though right before I got to him I felt heat and out of experience I ducked and watch as May sent steam to vaporize the demonic creature. I turned and nodded her direction as noticed Dawn gracefully dancing around the creature and skillfully freezing each of her targets; afterwards she forcefully kicked all breaking the ice vanquishing them as well. I smirked just as I heard May scream my name; instinctively I swung toward her, probably saving my life. It still hit though, I felt a sharp pain in my upper left arm. And turned toward the assailant dodging whatever attack he 'tried' to pull off and grabbed his face, thoroughly sucking his life out too. I looked back at May, hands on my hips smiling triumphantly just in time to see Misty striking her last foe.

We were all panting from the fight and as we took in the damage we had done to the dorm we were quite proud. It was still standing but, every piece of furniture on the lower level was destroyed, including the stairs; how the boys were going to get to their bedrooms blew my mind.

We all high fived and congratulated one another until we heard the slamming of a car door and finally the locking of a car. I ran toward one of the windows in the front a saw the dreaded sight. Drew and Gary were home, surprisingly not the boy's we were expecting to come home first, but then again Ellen had said that Thomas was Ash's and Paul's ride home so they don't get back till he does.

"Guys, it's the boys we need to leave!" And we all scrambled toward the outdoor pool in the back yard. As I was closing the glass doors, I saw a glint on the T.v. and as I went for it I noticed it was a rather odd looking knife. I looked from the knife to the girls repetitively and as I heard Dawn call my name I grabbed it and ran not even taking to the time to shut the door behind me. When I felt the lukewarm water stroke my face gently I changed and began to swiftly swim, I would probably hear about the boy's little break in tomorrow, and we would have to teach Dawn how to NOT give us away; splendid.

-Drew-

"Bro, I got so many chicks on my hind end, it's really starting to bother me." I stated plainly to Gary as I unlocked the door to our beautiful dorm. I strode in and flicked the lights on while I hung my coat on the coat hanger in the corner. Hearing Gary gasp and mumble I turned to him and saw him staring blindly in front of him blinking rapidly eyes wide mouth open. Turning to see what the big deal was I was completely caught off guard. Everything was broken in some way, and I even saw neon paint on the floor. The pranks had worked but, not in the way we had expected. "What the hell?" I muttered as I turned to face Gary just as confused and shocked as he was.

"Talk about bother…" He muttered as he began to look around.

'Yeah, no kidding.' I thought and crossed my arms rather displeased.

**So this was it, chapter 8. Did you like it, and if you're confused about the image and physical state of the Vardin, Ellen will pretty much explain everything to Thomas, she basically has no choice. Oops, probably should not have said that but I do what I want so yeah. Anyway if you're just dying, and I mean like dying to know, you can either review or PM me about it and I might just tell ya! [|:={) Mustache man! Any questions just feel free to ask and also I have a poll on my profile! Gots some questions of me own!**

** Courtesy of,**

**Jay Gatsby**

**Hey guys, i was graciously told by a reviewer that i accidently said Misty sent a fast steady stream or air but i assure you i meant water. So i fixed it and most likely tomorrow i will go through all my chapters and fix them so yeah. Just saying, chow!**


	9. Chapter 9

-Thomas-

Once I had turned back around my eyes had been locked on Ellen. She was frozen with fear, muttering incoherent words and some sounded like old chants Drew used to say. Looking once more back at the monster man I realized, he was looking for something very specific, and he obviously didn't know what the girl looked like. So if he sees the opposite of what he wants, he'll move on.

Turning back to Ellen, I noticed how pale she was. Even if I did do it A) she would hate me and B) she's so pale it might not even work. Seeing her shaking this terribly and this pale she obviously knew he was here to kill her, but she seemed as if she couldn't do anything about it, which made my insides sting. He would not hurt Ellen.

Instinctively I reached my body over the table doing the only thing I could think of to disrupt his 'perfect image' that she was forming. My face found hers, and our lips made contact, she flinched away from me at first but after a couple milliseconds she seemed to understand. Maybe it was because when she struggled to get out of my grip I wouldn't let her go? Maybe it's because I could feel him turn and start walking toward the back of the restaurant almost immediately? But I didn't think Ellen would actually willingly kiss me.

It was so passionate though, so sweet. She tasted what she smelled of; sweet cherries. And her skin was so smooth; it felt like she had bathed in salt for hours, days, maybe even years from one touch. Yet her skin was so tan and completely undamaged by any sun rays. Her hair was even soft to the touch; when touched, any part of her body seemed so fragile you could break it with a single swipe of your finger.

I was so reluctant to break the kiss, but I had to; the monster had made his way fully to the back and now was thoroughly confused. He was about to start making his way back here again and he would surely figure out Ellen was the girl he was looking for; she wasn't shaking very badly anymore but she was still extremely pale. Perhaps the kiss calmed her down.

I reached for my jacket and called out to my friends, 'Hey, guys, I might need a little help down here.' As soon as I felt my hand make contact with my jacket I felt Drew reply, communications through the mind went by fast. 'Ummm, we've got a little situation of our own…maybe, hey yeah, Gary, umm...that's gross...Gary and I. we'll pick up Paul and Ash so um, don't worry about it, okay.' Everything he said seemed more like a statement rather than a question. Oh yeah, I'm sure they have a situation worse than mine, great thanks guys.

I felt the fish creep coming our way and I helped Ellen to stand while taking her back to my car. "That, thing, it's here for you, isn't it?" I looked at her as she stepped in and sat down on the cushion while she slowly and sadly nodded. Looking back at the poor restaurant I noted the fish man flipping tables and throwing booths with just a simple flick of the wrist, and when a brave and stupid someone went for him with a knife he caught their wrist. Even from out here you could hear the breaking of his bones when the fish squeezed tightly asking where the woman was. When the man couldn't help him, he simply tossed him out the window with little effort, though the man, who was of reasonable size for a man, landed in the building across the street.

We needed to leave; I started the car slowly, trying to be as quiet as possible and made my way out of the parking lot and onto the busy street. I heard Ellen release a breath and turn backwards looking back at the diner. When she came to face forward once again she was still frantic but smiling. She was calming down, good, because now she can answer some questions.

"Who was that?" I wasn't angry at all, but my voice betrayed me and became harsh. I'm scared, not angry; I'm scared because that thing was there to hurt, no kill, Ellen. And if he got his hands on her he would most definitely be able to and there wouldn't really be a thing I could do. If I were Paul maybe, he would be able to pry the monsters hands of her, but he wouldn't, not unless it was one of the guys he had. Or maybe Dawn even, but not Ellen.

When we came to a stop at a red light I looked at her and repeated my question. She brought her eyes to mine, those beautiful teal orbs. They were sad, scared, and terrified; she was terrified, and she didn't even try to hide it. Her voice was only but a whisper and I could barely make out what she said, "Just drive, I'll tell you tomorrow, I need to get home as soon as possible. Please, please, take me home."

I felt awful that I had let her get this terrified, even though I knew there was nothing I could do about it. I turned back at the rode and when the light turned green I hit the gas pedal, only to be stopped by a very unattractive fish man. He jumped right in front of my car making the ground shake and not even the impact of my corvette hitting him square in the chest going 45 mph made him so much as budge. Then he slammed his fist into the front of my car making it almost flip on top of him, but instead he caught it, making Ellen only about a foot away from his face; thank god for seat belts. She, being a girl, screamed and closed her eyes while bundling up into a little ball tucking her legs close to her chest.

I on the other hand was busy reading his mind, 'The princess always graced her citizens with her eloquent blonde hair; this being though does not match the princess. She bares remarkable resemblance although the black encasing her eyes represents the image of, _human. _The name...I need the name, surely the princess would not be stupid enough to use her real name.' Thinking, I realized Ellen had not lied about her name. If she had, I would not have accepted it and pestered her until I got the truth.

"Tell me, mortal, what is your name?" She only squeaked. This made him grow angry and he snarled at her.

He didn't say I couldn't answer for her, and this was her life in the balance. "Ellen, her name is Ellen." He looked at me then. He had no pupils; his eyes were just black like a fishes. When he looked back at Ellen he snorted and just dropped the car back on the street before heading back out to sea. Staring at where he had headed off while Ellen was still in her ball, though she had removed her head from it to look up, I had to insult the creep. "Not the brightest, is he?" I turned to her and she was slowly shaking her head, then she stopped and smiled.

"Thank you." She breathed out and jumped over and hugged me tightly. When she retracted she glanced over my car and put a finger to her lips, "You got a little dent there…and there." And she began pointing at every dent; I just couldn't help but laugh. Then I heard her once more "I think I'll be buying you a new car tomorrow."

-Ellen-

Thomas had finally agreed to let me go home and tell him about Sindar tomorrow. He had made me promise to go to the Starbucks on 5th at 7:30 tomorrow. Sunday was the only day the students get off at this school and he makes me get up that early, freaking great.

I slid down the closed door of my dorm room and sat on the floor perfectly still. I had no idea what to think, should I be afraid because Sindar had come after me; I wasn't. Should I be relieved that I managed to avoid Sindar's wrath; I wasn't. No, instead I was ecstatic that I could see Thomas again tomorrow, that I had kissed him, that he had kissed me. When I thought about that moment I brought my hands to my lips in joy.

I had zoned out and only when Dawn squealed my name did I come out of it. "Ellen, Ellen you're home, we have loads to tell you!" and she grasped my arm yanking me up and skipped off toward the living room. On the table I saw four brown boxes and two black ones with a knife piled on top of everything. Then I looked at the girls.

May had a faint red stamp on her forehead that I couldn't make out while Leaf and Misty had white stuff and feathers in their hair. Then May's hair still had bits of…something colorful in it. Obviously they had changed, now they each wore black soffe shorts and undershirts on. May had red, Misty blue, Leaf green _(ha, see what I did there)_, and Dawn, well I was assuming she hadn't changed.

Dawn was wearing pink sparkly pumps and an equally sparkly pink sleeveless V-neck shirt tucked into a white miniskirt. I hated the outfit, maybe because I hate pink but she was raining glitter, like me, only pink. It took me hours to figure out but anywhere I went in this dress I rained little champaign glitter everywhere like a little fairy; I felt sorry for Thomas car seat, especially now that his car was ruined.

"So, I guess the little invasion plan worked?" I stated while plucking a feather from Leafs hair and I hear a slight thank you. They all nodded but May was slouched on the couch pouting. "Great, now what the hell happened to you guys?" I pointed to everyone but Dawn, either she had managed to avoid everything or she was the one to do this to them. I honestly felt bad for them.

Misty snorted and sat down on the couch next to May putting her elbow on her knee and supporting her head with her hand. "Don't…ask" She said rather angrily. I heard Dawn giggle and I turned to her and gave her a questioning look. She nodded and began to tell me everything.

"Okay, there we were in the main hall way, which we had to go in because of this thingy which is called a lock by the way…" She said making her way toward the door and fumbling with the key hole thing. "And May then got hit with four pranks, static in her hair making an afro, neon paint, a loose floor board slapping her in the face and last but not least a stamp on her little forehead saying 'dumbass'." I laughed so hard May slapped me earning her a glare and Dawn continued; those boys really know how to thwart Mays days! Dawn cleared her throat and pointed to Leaf and Misty earning two groans. "Then they bragged about how stupid May was while taking the lead and then thoroughly got splashed with plaster and chicken feathers. Then they all got hit by like two or three pies in the face." With that she triumphantly set her hands on her hips. My mouth was wide open while I heard many complaints from the girls toward Dawn saying that the pies were her fault but eventually she shut them up. "Now, now we went over this, if you had been paying attention to what I was saying you would have heard me announce each and every pie and you would not have been hit once; same with the stairs." She had removed one hand from her hips and pointed her index finger up with closed eyes and I heard everyone moan at the mention of the stairs.

"Wait, the stairs?" I questioned.

Dawn giggled while everyone else rolled their eyes. "Yep, the stairs silly-Billy; you see one of the pranks was a slanted stair case and they all fell for it." She was very content with herself.

I giggled lightly and pointed at Dawn, "And I'm assuming you didn't fall into a single prank, huh?" When I asked this everyone in the room with something foreign in their hair screamed 'no' at me.

She then giggled again and said that if was time for the recaps and began telling how her search in Paul's room had gone.

-Flashback-

-Dawn-

I skipped along happily looking at each door, neon yellow; Ash, he's so silly. Light green; Drew, dark green; Gary, white; Thomas, and finally…black. Sighing I opened the door slowly listening for the sound of a tightening string. After a few seconds I heard it and looked up frozen. A white bucket rested above me ready to topple at any moment, thinking happily as I was I simply froze the whole contraption in place and danced in the room, the all black room. I HATE black.

Humming I flipped the light switch and realized Paul's room was huge. The door was in the Left most corner and the bed was in the middle of the same wall as the door; it had all black sheets, pillows, and covers. Everything in the room was black, the carpet, the curtains, the couch at the foot of the bed, the walls. Everything.

It was a very neat room though. There was no litter on the floor, no dirty clothes on the bed, which was made, and the desk on the wall to the left of the bed was organized. How can someone live in so much black?

I danced and twirled toward the closet thinking I would search there first and as my hand came into contact with the cold surface I heard a screech. Misty probably, it sounded like her. Then I heard May trying to sooth her. Shaking my head and laughing I turned the knob and swung open the doors to reveal…..black. Every piece of clothing he had was black. Every piece. That's odd he doesn't always wear black to school, most days yeah but there's the occasional white and grey. Looking left and right I saw a small dresser in the back of the closet and I made my way for it. Opening every drawer I had found the grey and white, and other clothing he would probably me not see. Quickly closing it and moving back out of the closet a small glint caught my eye. Turning to face it I realized I had gotten all of his black clothing stained with pink glitter. Then I had an idea and I perked up with an evil glint in my eye.

Gracefully I began to dance around his room dropping glitter like rain. I was having so much fun dancing around his spacious room that I didn't even notice that I had covered every inch of his black room with pink glitter until I shivered the first time. Figuring it was just me dancing around I shrugged it off and began to look around and became very pleased. Now this kind of black I can handle.

Laughing lightly I reached for the floor looking under his glittery bed. Under it was a brown box with engravings on it. Instinctively I reached for it and realized the carpet under his bed had yet to be pink-ified. I pulled the box out from under the bed and went back under; surprisingly there was no dust or anything under it, Paul was very clean. I swiftly began rolling around under the bed rubbing off all the sparkles necessary.

Once I was finished I brought myself out from under his bed and placed my hands on the brown box. Out of the girls, I was the only one who could relatively read the old language, Misty could speak a little but I was the only one who could only read it, I couldn't speak a lick though. Other than that we all knew our kingdoms word and on the top of the box I read the word while rubbing it softly. "Air…" I murmured. I went to open the box but before I could I shivered again. Going out into the hall way thinking it was the temperature I saw that it was 72 degrees and…

-Ellen-

I nodded my head so that's what Dawn spent her time doing. "Did his room fit your needs by the time you left?"

"Yep!" She chirped and I saw May raise her hand saying 'my turn, my turn'.

-Flashback-

-May-

After I saw Leaf's and Misty's accidents upon entering the guys rooms I swung the door open and withdrew myself watching the worms and earth fall. Fortunately, only little bits of dirt managed to stain my black ripped skinny jeans and my black leather jacket, which was all already ruined thanks to the neon colored paint. Brushing it off, I tucked in my black undershirt. Hm, thought you could get me didn't you Drew.

Smugly I waltzed into Drew's dark green walled and white carpeted room. I gasped when I placed my black combat boot inside his room just realizing how truly neat he was. Everything was polished and vacuumed. Plus the bed was neatly made and I saw a vase of flowers on the mahogany nightstand. He had a whole batch of thorn less red roses and a calendar next to them. The month on the calendar however was wrong, it was on May.

Deciding to fix it I strode over to his nightstand and tripped on a small box slightly protruding from under the bed. Seeing the small black box had a lock on it I went over to Ash's room hoping to find Misty searching. Instead I saw her sniffing a bottle on his dresser. "Misty, what on earth are you doing?" I threw my hands into the air for emphasize and she jumped obviously startled.

She looked from me to the bottle continuously and stuttered many things then she looked at me eyes wide and said "I think it has kelp in it." She murmured. What, who cares? I thought angrily and obviously my face showed it for she continued. "Kelp to a mermaid of the water kingdom is like cat nip to a cat….you might want to take this…" She grabbed the bottle and made a movement to throw it at me but she never let go.

Frustrated I strode over to her and we began to struggle over the bottle, "Give, gi…give me it, GIVE IT TO ME NOW!" I wound up having to scream. Once I had the bottle in my hand Misty looked at me wanting-ly. "What scent is this anyway?" It was a bottle of that cologne stuff, 'Sea, Scents and Sun' it read. I looked at her and shoved the box in her hands and put the stupid bottle in my pocket. "Open it." And I looked around Ash's room. It was actually really gross, especially compared to Drew's room.

Misty handed me the box back saying thanks and continued her search; smiling I went back to Drew's room happy to get out of Ash's. His mattress was very soft as I sat down and it sank under my small weight. His green covers matched his walls while his white pillow and sheets matched his floor. Every piece of furniture was mahogany and it was all expensive looking, like the small black box in my hand.

Opening it I found several curse's and chants in Drew's handwriting along with some other stuff. What would Drew want with chants and curses? Then I heard a shrilling scream from the hallway; simply peeking out I noticed it was Dawn and Leaf was already at her side. Eh, no need for me. I continued looking through the box but found nothing that I could understand or comprehend. He had advanced problems in here; one was even titled 'The answer to world hunger' which freaked me out that a 17-18 year old boy thought he could solve the answer to that.

I ducked under his bed looking where I had found his other box and saw two more, one black like it and another brown. But when I went to reach for them I heard Leaf's voice scream…

-Ellen-

They really had a rough night. But then again, so did I and we were presently ignoring the fact that the Vardin were here and that Thomas actually saw Sindar. Everything had come crashing down in the span of one night. But before I could say anything about this Misty began her tale of what happened.

-Flashback (you probably already knew that)-

-Misty-

Making my way up the stairs had been tiring so without thinking I just proceeded to open Ash's door and swing it open. Causing a tub to fly onto my head making everything to go black, after muttering a few bad words I began to feel something crawling on my skin and down my back. Instinctively I shook and threw the tub off my face allowing the light to shine on the culprits…BUGS! Screeching I saw May swipe off every worm visible to her and speak, though I had no idea what she said from my own screeching. "May, I, th-there are bugs in my shirt…" I was frozen with my arms plastered (Quite literally) to my sides on my tiptoes. I looked at her awkwardly until she sighed and began brushing off my back and neck until every stinking little pest was gone. "Thank you." I muttered, and she stalked off toward Drew's room, CAREFULLY, opening the door.

Deciding it was best for me to start my search I looked forward and gasped. He was by far the messiest human I've ever seen. Clothes, dirty plates of food, empty soda cans, and homework littered the floor with socks and shoes on the neon yellow and brown striped bed. By the way, who the hell paints their room neon yellow, I mean yellow I can understand but in neon? It was an awful choice.

I decided to help him out and clean a little so I made my way over to the tissues and grabbed two; one for each hand, and began piling up the dirty plates and throwing away the cans while separating clothes from towels. Disgusted I made a pile for underwear too; everything I piled in his oddly unused closet. He would appreciate this, if not I'll kill him.

After minutes of cleaning I came across a small bottle on his dresser which I felt drawn to. Stupidly I picked it up and sprayed a little on my wrist immediately becoming captivated in the scent rubbing my face on my small wrist until the smell was no more. I went to the bottle instead until May just happened to ruin my peace.

Every memory from then until the bottle left the room was blurry; I remember being scared, embarrassed, sad, and scared again. From then on I remember everything clearly. That stupid Ash, he just has to have cologne with kelp in it.

Just then I decided to put all his clothes up for him; why I felt the need to do all this for him I felt no idea, I just was. But when I opened the drawer I came across a small brown box. After removing it from the drawer and placing it on my black leggings I rolled up the sleeves to my black sweater; it was too big for me but who cares. I was about to open it when I heard a scream and angrily I pushed myself up. Putting black boot in front of black boot I began to rub my neck and moan, every muscle hurt from all the cleaning.  
When I made my way into the hallway…

-Ellen-

Poor Misty, poor, poor, poor Misty. It looked like her body still hurt for she was rubbing her arms wearily and she had her feet in a foot massager; Dawn saw it on an ad on TV and she 'couldn't resist such a luxury', which honestly when you normally have a large fin, massaging your _feet_ in anyway is a luxury.

"Okay, my turn…" Leaf began and cleared her throat. I moaned and put my head in my hands while sitting down on the couch beside Misty. Poor Ellen.

She began her tale but I grew frustrated and interrupted her before she could finish. "Guys, we are avoiding the fact that tomorrow I have to meet with Thomas at 7:30 to discuss our little problematic friend who showed up tonight; any suggestions?" I looked at everyone in the room and they all slightly frowned not knowing what to say. Eventually I felt Leafs hand on my shoulder, "Like I told you before, just wing it." I frowned at her while she ignored me laughing and got up saying she was going to bed. I watched sadly as everyone else made their way for their bedrooms as well. Getting up I thought I would do the same, but the knife on the table caught my attention.

I went to reach for it but when I touched the hilt it actually moved away from me; away from my touch. To grab it I had to be quick, which took me several tries, and after successfully stopping the small marble knife I brought it to my face to try to decipher the small print in its blade. The only problem, it wasn't the old mermaid language, but the language of the mind readers. "Mind readers…" I murmured. How odd that they would have something as rare as this and the pendants. Then a thought occurred to me, they could be hunters, awful people who kill any magical creature.

Fear and sadness overwhelmed my body, more so than I thought for I failed to notice the being behind me until I felt a rag cover my mouth and I felt my body go limp in their arms dropping the knife with a loud thud.

Then I heard a loud gasp and I heard my captor mumble something about only having enough powder to knock out one. The person who gasped has to be one of us, and this can't be Sindar, it's just not how he deals with things, he tends to be a lot more…violent. But then who, the only other people who would have reason to shouldn't know who violated their privacy.

With my world fading fast I muttered 'Run' to whoever it was that stumbled into this and I heard struggling immediately after. Then it hit me, 'Mind readers…'. Mind readers must have come back to get the knife and whatever else belonged to them that the boys took. I knew I had to tell the girl in trouble, so I did. Then, everything went black and my conscience faded.

**SOOOOOOO, who was it that stumbled onto Ellen's little mishap? And if you're asking me to ask you who broke in to the girls house I'm not because I think that's pretty god damn clear, but do you think their secrets will come out soon, and whose secrets will come out first? Don't forget to vote in my poll! **

**Oh and as you can probably see i kinda blew off my 5 page limit, but that was because i decided to combine chapters 9 &10 because they were a little short. So i put the chapters together expecting it to be like 7 pages then i realized the transition wasnt very good and i just didnt like it so i added and changed some stuff. Hope you like it and sorry about the length, it wound up being 9 pages exactly, and if you like this length better or absolutly hate it tell me which! LOVE YOU ALL! Ciao!**

**Courtesy of, **

** Jay Gatsby**


	10. Chapter 10

-Paul-

Curling my fingers around her tanned curves I felt slightly agitated that I could never really be with the beauty in my arms. I smoothed her midnight bangs from her face a tugged on her shirt to lower it in an attempt to try and cover more of her stomach only it only succeeded in showing more of her cleavage. Her shirt was a loose white off the shoulder crop top with a tie at the bottom showing her curves, stomach, pearl belly ring, and tan skin. She had on light pink soffe shorts lined with white and light pink and white striped stockings reaching just above the knees. Even when dressing for bed she managed to be gorgeous.

Upon arriving at the girl's dorm we realized they were all making their way toward their rooms except Ellen. So we only brought enough knock-out power for her. Unfortunately this troublesome girl had to just ruin the whole party. We hadn't planned on kidnapping any of them; we went just to get our stuff back before they got any useful information out of it, but when she waltzed in the room all carefree and we had nothing to knock her out with we were left with no choice. And now here we were in the car our way back home.

I was in the passenger's seat with the struggling girl in my lap blindfolded with her hands bound behind her. She certainly didn't act like any other hunter I'd seen. Most of them were loners, and most of them wouldn't be taken down so easily and none of them would except sitting in the lap of a mind reader as well as she was now. 'Drew, there's no way she's a hunter. Her whole demeanor screams cheerleading preppy bitch with absolutely no self-value. A hunter wouldn't be caught dead in what she's got on and she doesn't even act like she has any defensive training at all. She, literally, is just wiggling here, like a worm.' My eyes never left the strands of midnight blue still over the girls face while I argued with the driver.

Drew turned to me smirking and replied smugly, 'Yeah and you love every second of it.' I glared at him but did nothing for revenge, because he was right. I was bathing in the feel of this girl's body on mine, the smell of her hair in my nose, the beauty my eyes took in every time I saw her, and the feel of her smooth skin against my callused, rough fingers. . She drove me nuts all round; every sense, every idea was thrown off when she was near. I didn't quite love her, but you couldn't describe my affections for this girl with the word _'like'_.

When I heard Drew's voice once more I turned to him, 'Oh and I know dude; she wouldn't last a second as a hunter. She could win a medal yeah but…it'd have to be the 'I suck' medal. Or, I guess it could be the 'I'm too happy so I make friends with everyone I'm supposed to kill' medal. But I've known she wasn't a hunter ever since you guys brought her back to the car. A hunter would rather die than be taken down, there's no way'. He agreed with me, yet he didn't think to tell me this when we first got in the car; all this time was spent worrying about what Drew wanted to do to her because he was afraid that she was a hunter. We had decided that they were all hunters, it was the only way to explain their behavior, but even so, Ellen's tactics were cruel.

'Wait, so you've known this the whole time and you never thought to tell me the woman in my lap is not someone who may very well be trained to kill me? Oh yeah Drew, comfort levels are real high!' I shot him another icy glare while straightening her against the car door. He laughed loudly and smiled at me.

After hearing Dawn's whines from under the tape I felt sorry for her. She was scared and frantic, she had no idea what was going on and she obviously didn't want to find out what we had in store for her, which I really didn't know if we had anything. 'Yeah, guys we're home!

Gary screamed loudly in our heads making us all flinch, only I was the only one with a girl in my lap, which I had made hit her head on the car; this only frightened her more. Then poor girl was shaking even after we gave her a good dose of the knock-out crap Drew had made. I swear it looked like cocaine.

I laid her gently on my glittering bed and strode to the living room where everyone else was sorting out our things. Once we were all settled were began to gaze over everything figuring out what belonged to who when Drew's face turned hard and he slapped his face to his hands and drug them down his face.

I watched everything unfold before me; Ash ask what happened, Drew respond with a cocky remark, Ash not understand, Drew explain, and from there was a lot of arguing. Everyone was upset and we had no idea how we could miss this; we had left both of Drew's mind reader box's. BOTH of them, with the five, now four, girls each of us had a hopeless romance with. Wonderful.

I interrupted their bickering by yelling and they all seemed startled while swirling around to me. "We left both of the most important items we were supposed to get and you're just sitting here arguing? Let's just go back and get them!" I stated rather angry; it was late and we were all tired.

Drew sighed and laid back lazily on the couch with his hands covering his face in frustration, "I wish we could, we didn't give Ellen as much of the stuff we gave Dawn therefore she should already be up by now and I don't think they are stupid enough to fall for our little trick again; twice in one night." He was scared; you could tell by his movements, each one was rigid. We all were; this was the closest someone had ever come to our secret, also the closest someone has come to our hearts.

Thomas bent down to the floor to grasp his knife and began to speak, "We should get some rest, it's late and we had a rough day. I'll see you guys in the morning." He sprang up and made his way to his room, the only one not raided by the girls. Everyone else began to nod and make their way to their own room except Ash who just lounged around on the couch.

"Would you leave, you're such a nuisance." I grumbled out at him. He just cocked his head and squinted like he had no idea what I was talking about. "We fixed your room, remember, Drew's Spell. Yeah, well my room has a troublesome brat in it so I'm either sleeping here or I'm throwing you out of your room. Your choice, but I suggest you make it quickly." I growled at him, he infuriates me even more than…her.

Quickly he scurried off to his room frightened by my threat while I fixed the couch to fit my needs. I didn't get much sleep though, my mind kept drifting toward a touchy subject. I wondered if she was warm enough, or if she was too hot, or if she was comfortable, or if she even liked me in any way. I was always so mean to her, and it would be a miracle if she didn't hate me, though she never acted like she hated me; not completely anyways. I rolled over before finally letting my mind slip into slumber.

-Time Skippy-

-Dawn-

I woke up to feel strong arms lifting me from my comfortable position on the soft blankets. They smelled good whoever they were, and I snuggled into them making them flinch under me. I fell back into sleep in their arms after hearing soft whispers but was woken up shortly afterwards by a gentle push on my shoulder and someone whispering my name. The voice was rather familiar and when it clicked I sprang to life startling everyone else in the room.

The boys recovered fast as I recalled what happened from last night; they were the ones who broke in, well we kinda deserved it. Paul was leaning on the wall to my right while Thomas mirrored him to my left with Ash and Gary slouched on the couch next to Paul. Drew was standing in front of me arms over chest and with a scowl similar to Paul's; I had never seen Drew's scowl and to be honest it rivaled Paul's.

I was strapped to a chair in the middle of their living room, their perfect, nice, clean living room. A living room which looked like nothing had happened to it, which neither did the rest of their house, it was all clean and pretty.

Well seeing as how they KIDNAPPED ME, they must already know it was us. "How'd you clean your house so well, I mean when we left it was a wreck?" I said looking around the clean area avoiding all eye contact.

All the boys were surprised by my question; they obviously didn't expect me to admit to it that quickly. Drew looked at Paul and then back to me with a confused expression on his face. "So you admit to your crime?" He asked suspiciously.

I laughed at his formality; he was so silly. "Yeah, but I would hardly call it a crime I mean you guys picked up pretty well! Oh by the way how'd you know it was us anyway?"

Drew just seemed more confused and stuttered for a sec or two then replied. "Hey, I'm the one asking the questions here; what were you looking for when you broke in?" Paul leapt up off the wall and strode in front of Drew and stuck his finger in my face after Drew had finished with his comment.

"My room smells like fresh strawberries and tulips and there's a bus load of pink glitter stock piled in my room that I highly doubt will ever come out of my carpet. Who else do you think would do that to my room?" He said angrily, then Ash stood from the couch and placed his arms around his chest.

He made a noise then spoke. "Plus, my room is clean and neat, also surprisingly my cologne is missing, you guys didn't take that to did you, or did I just loose it?" Wow, I guess we really did give ourselves away, oh well!

I turned my head and closed my eyes; they should appreciate what we did for them. "Humph, well you have no right to complain; tulips smell nice, pink is a pretty color, and Ash your room was horrifying." I said the last part with a disgusted expression on my face.

Ash and Paul were about to retort but Drew cleared his throat annoyed at them both and repeated himself. I thought for a while; I couldn't tell them why I was really there they would freak and they wouldn't understand. I had to come up with a lie, but would they buy it? I straightened myself trying to look proud and opened my mouth to begin when Thomas interrupted me. "Holy crap guys I gotta go, Ellen could already be at the coffee shop." He said while grasping his wrist and hopping off the wall.

Then Gary hopped up off the couch and joined the conversation. "Perhaps we should go with you, I mean look at what happened last time? Plus this girl tricked you by going on a date just to get you out of the house, that's cruel and now she knows you like her. She's smart, she could use that to get to you and that would hurt us all." After he said this Thomas flipped out pointing at me with an expression and Gary seemed confused for a few seconds before finally getting it. "She already knows you like Ellen, you asked her out remember?" Thomas lowered his eyebrows and scowled at Paul for no apparent reason who just smirked in response. Then he took off yelling for them to hurry up and both boys who were previously on the couch scampered off with him while Drew sighed and turned to Paul.

"Do you think you can handle her by yourself? Ellen might have brought the other girls and if she did then we're outnumbered; I need to go to." Paul nodded and soon it was only him left unbound.

He looked at me quizzically and walked over to place him only a foot in front of me with his hands in his pockets. "You're not a hunter, are you?" He asked. I tilted my head in confusion and he started again. "You don't even know what I mean huh?" Of course I knew what he meant but how could he know what he meant? How did he know about hunters, unless he meant a hunter of animals then that's even more of a definite no! Either way, the answer's the same.

I looked at him appalled and retorted. "Hell no, I would never kill anything. Why would you think I'm a hunter?" He sighed then and knelled next to me putting his eyes level with mine; they were full of sadness and hurt, but also love and a cold kindness. They pierced my soul and I felt sparks fly within me; those eyes, his eyes always had an effect on me and I could never escape their grasp.

"How did you know what kind of hunter I meant? And don't even try denying it, if you didn't know ten you would've said I would never kill any creature or animal, not anything. Even if you didn't know which kind I meant, you know of both kinds." I was stunned, he did know of the magical hunters, but how? How could a mortal know of the magical kind of hunters, unless he was one?

I was so shocked I was able to bring my eyes away from his, but I could feel them follow my movements carefully. "Are you?" my voice was cracking and I was shaking wildly; if he was a hunter, he would kill me, but how could he be? He never showed signs of being a hunter; he never acted like he wanted to kill me or anything for that matter.

He laughed lightly and looked down for a few before bringing his gaze back to me. "No. I'm not a hunter, and I'm not going to hurt you." I looked back at him if he wasn't a hunter then; suddenly I remembered what Ellen had murmured before she went to sleep last night. I had barely been able to hear her but I remember chanting the words in my head a million times before I felt myself sleep for the same powdery substance. He was a mind reader, they were all mind readers.

Evidently I said something out loud for Paul chuckled and stood up without moving his eyes. "How'd you know?" He asked sadly.

I was so shocked I couldn't believe he was admitting to it. Paul, my Paul, was standing before me saying that he was a mind reader and that he was ultimately not human either. But how was this possible, they had our pendants and they were mind readers and they…So many questions flooded my mind at once making my brain falter completely. I could barely whisper Ellen's name to him but he seemed to understand as he nodded accordingly and began talking about how he thought I heard him.

I began to come back to reality as I heard him finish up what he was talking about. "Now there only remains one thing in the unfinished business pile…" After he said this he placed both his hands on either side of my head at the top of the chair and leaned forward making his head only inches away from mine; I could feel his soft, warm breath on me while we gazed at each other. "I'm a mind reader, what are you?" He asked softly and waited anxiously for my response.

-Gary (I realized I don't think I've done anything in his P.O.V.)-

When we walked into the coffee shop Ellen was seated by the window in a booth to the right. She was gazing lazily out the window but seemed extremely jumpy and scared. Probably because they have no idea where Dawn was; I looked away from her when I felt Drew lightly hit me with his hand and point to the back left corner of the shop to see Misty, May and Leaf with the exact same expression and demeanor as Ellen. They were all here, great. I nodded and drug Ash over to the table as Thomas and Drew walked toward Ellen.

Almost immediately after we sat down Leaf and the girls sprang to life. They all jumped and May almost threw her glass of water at us making Ash flinch; what a wimp. Turning toward the girls I saw Misty had turned and was looking at a panicking Ellen; obviously they had startled her too. Leaf was staring shocked that we were here two and May was busy cleaning up the little water she did happen to spill. "So…" I began; we had to get all the girls together. "Y'all want to go over to Ellen, Thomas, and Drew? I think the conversations a lot more interesting over there don't you?" I asked while setting my head on my hand and smiling smugly. Misty turned back and scowled but got up and made her way toward Ellen. Leaf and May seemed confused then did the same while Ash and I high fived. "Gott'em." I whispered.

Ash nodded and smile as we walked over too, just in time to hear the conversation get good. Drew was talking and all the girls seemed defensive. Misty was leaning on the booth Ellen, Leaf and May were in while Drew and Thomas were across form them. "So, you want to tell us why you broke into our house last night? You know that would be the least you could do after wrecking it so badly." Drew taunted. Misty said something about not wanting to be accused and motioned for the girls to follow her. She turned to leave but Ash and I moved in her way blocking any hopes of escape. Luckily we were in the corner booth which meant it curved with the wall so there was room for ten people. I motioned for her to take a seat and Ash sat next to Misty with me next to him, we had sealed off and exits and now they would have to talk. We had forced everyone to scoot over and now Ellen was next to Thomas with Leaf next to her and then May and Misty. They all shared a scared glance then Misty came to their defense, she always was the quick thinker.

"How do you know it was us who 'wrecked' your house, you do realize it's rude and inappropriate to accuse someone right?" She asked leaning back into the booth, she was trying to give off the impression that she was confident; it wasn't working.

Drew leaned onto the table set his head in his hand while using his other hand to poke the table with every syllable he spoke. "You realize it's a crime to break in and steal right? Oh and it's also rude to lie to people too." He said sarcastically and then turned to Ellen. "And to toy with people." His voice changed and he said this full of hate. We were angry with her, how she could just play with Thomas like that was cruel and just screamed hunter, but that was the only thing about any of them that even resembled the word mean.

Ellen cocked her head and eyed Drew suspiciously; how could she not understand? Drew sneered at her and leaned back letting Ash take the lead. "Look, we know it was you okay? We just want to know why and what you wanted. This can be real easy alright, just tell us." Misty and Leaf's expressions softened while Ellen still looked confused with May looking out the window worriedly.

Leaf spoke up, "Look, we can't really tell you everything but we can tell you that you have some things of ours and we want them back. They are really important not only to us but many others and…" She glanced at Misty who nodded. "We're not the only ones who want them." She stated sadly.

"That 'thing' that attacked Ellen and I at the diner the other day, it's the other thing that wants what you want isn't it?" Thomas asked suddenly popping into the conversation. Ellen nodded and joined in as well.

"His name I Sindar and he is the leader of the Vardin, but that is all we can tell you about him, and that he is crazy dangerous and to never ever trust him." She sped up as she talked and made motions to emphasize what she was telling us. I leaned forward and felt my pendant peel off my chest and hang loosely around my neck. It made a noise as it hit the table and Leaf immediately snapped her head toward it. This whole action sparked another very important question.

"So what exactly do we have that 'belongs' to you?" I said adding my fingers to emphasize belong. Leaf brought her eyes to mine and pointed at my chest. I understood her then, she wanted my pendant.

May sighed and looked at Ellen and Misty then answered and confirmed my thoughts. "We need your pendants, they belong to our ancestors and they are very important to us. It was why we were so distracted every time we saw one of them and why we took the box's that contained them."

Drew cocked his head and snickered. "If you think we're just going to believe you only from what you have just told us and based on your current actions, then you're stupider than I thought Maple, there's no way in hell I'm just going to hand over my pendant to a girl who has done nothing but lie to me." He said angrily while eyeing her evilly. "If you want my pendant, you're going to have to tell me everything, and I think that stands for all of us. Plus, if you were only after our pendants, then why did you take our other two boxes; the two black ones?" He leaned back and slouched; he was right and he knew it, if Leaf wanted my pendant she was going to have to tell me the truth.

May turned defensive at Drew's comment. "I haven't lied to you about everything! I told you my name, age, birthday, and lots of other stuff that's been true thank you very much! And we've never actually seen the pendants! It's taken us years to locate them and we had no idea what we were looking for so when we took your other two flipping boxes we thought they had something to do with our freaking pendants Sir. Arrogance!" She huffed and slammed her palm on the table starling everyone.

Drew flicked his hair and chuckled. "If you're asking me to send you a birthday card I think I'll send it with a dead flower too." He said arrogantly.

Then Ellen's face turned harsh and cold. "Well you haven't exactly been honestly with us either; how did you get the pendants hmm? Did you kill someone for them or did you just find them at the bottom of the sea in a rapped present saying 'take me' and run off into paradise?"

The four of us were stunned; did she just ask if we had killed someone for the pendants? I needed to ask Drew something right away. '_Do you think she thinks were hunters?' _I channeled my message to Thomas's and Ash's minds as well and I felt Drew do the same.

'_Yeah I do, but how would she know about hunters in the first place?" _Drew pondered.

Thomas said the comment out loud and Ellen grew a little white then shook it off and told us to just and her question. I looked at Drew who nodded and gave a little wink mouthing 'I got it.' "We bought them online, ever heard of e-bay?" He lied rather well; if it weren't for these pendants we would've never met. When we were young we had all felt drawn to the pendants so we all journeyed to a mysterious mountain. At the top we found five graves with the boxes on them and when we got there each pendant just glowed and of course we each checked a box, and when we did we felt a certain pull to the pendant we first laid eyes on. So we kept them and we took care of them and they, in a way, took care of us. Before we had no idea that the others were mind readers as well and once we touched the pendants we could just feel that we all were, and from then on best friends forever, you know like the girl thing.

But where I thought Drew was an expert liar Ellen saw right through it. "I'm no idiot, now tell me the truth." She said pointing as Drew.

Feeling a slight pinch I turned to Ash who lightly nodded letting me know he got it to. Then I looked at Thomas and Drew who nodded as well while I gave my own light little nod. Paul was trying to contact us and as the connection was made he immediately began speaking. _'Drew Ellen knows our secret, but they have one that rivals our own…" _He started and even though he was mainly talking to Drew I could hear him clearly; Drew and I shared a look, one that went from terror to pure bewilderment. '_They're not human," _I turned to Leaf as he said the last part, _'They're mermaids.'_

**Hey so I have to start Band Camp tomorrow (On my birthday! Yay fun right-not really) so updates might not come as often until like the 2****nd**** or 3****rd**** week of school, sorry guys. This is not a definite thing just a maybe and I thought that if there was any chance of it happening I should warn you guys so you don't think I've discontinued the whole story. But hey my birthdays tomorrow! That's probably the only bit of good news I can give you, for me anyway! As always, thank you for your time and please vote in my poll! **

**Courtesy of, **

**Jay Gatsby**


	11. Chapter 11

-Ash-

I tried stretching out over my bed and relaxing to calm my nerves but it was no use. I couldn't help but ponder over the betrayed look in Misty's eyes as we left. She was the only girl to ever understand me and here I had taken something so important to her and I refused to give it back. She had always seemed so strong and confident and beautiful, but when I had turned back and watched her as we left she broke. Parts of me wondered if it was only because we had told them they would never get _our_ pendants or for some other reason that I knew would never be true, but still I hoped.

Sighing I had made up my mind and I jumped off the bed and reached for my phone. Memories from this morning flooded my mind as I dialed the last few digits.

-Sexy flashback-

I watched Misty as Paul told us the truth about them and time seemed to pause. She turned to look at me with those beautiful cerulean eyes that never should have left the sea. I had once heard that mermaids were once bound to it by law in fear of discovery; so why had they left? If the sea was such a sacred place why leave. My question would soon be covered however; Gary seemed to want to know the answer too.

He slouched in his seat and threw his arms back against the booth and began to shake his head back and forth. The girl's faces changed to a questioning on while all of our eyes were on them. "You know what, I'm kinda in the mood for sea food right now, I mean I don't normally like sea food but them lobsters taste pretty good. I really just don't like it when your fish come half human and lie about it, but I don't know. What about you Drew?" He inquired.

Drew laughed sadly and responded quickly with the same smartass tone in his voice. "What do you mean like mermaid; yeah I hate it when they lie to you too. I mean the least they could do is tell you the truth because after all they are on the land and well, let's just say they aren't 'land material'. Girls, what do you think?" And he cocked his head at May whose face was void of any color with her jaw clenched. He took this as a signal to continue. "Secrets out ladies, now tell us, _everything."_

May squinted her eyes and opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out so she tried again and this time she managed something out, but only in a small, strained whisper. "Go to hell…" She hopped over everyone stepping on Drew and his sensitive spot making him groan and walked away out of the restaurant.

I was getting mixed signals from the girls; I could tell what emotion they were trying to play out, anger, but for some of them it wasn't quite working. May for instance, something in her eyes and movements displayed more than anger but hurt and fear most of all though she looked broken. Ellen was still sitting calmly but her eyes were watery; that was her give away. Leaf couldn't even look at Gary, let alone look up from her lap. Misty was the most stable; she was looking straight at Drew. "How?" was all she said, but her voice cracked a little, you would've had to know her well to catch it; thankfully I did.

Drew looked up and said coldly, "You should know, you're the one who broke into our house and lied to us about everything. You're the one who betrayed us; now tell us why you played us like a hunter." Leaf's hand quivered and she too hopped up and slide over the edge of the booth running after May. Gary followed her with his eyes obviously wanting to comfort her but stopped himself and turned to the table. His eyes were cast down and his shoulders were slouched while his fingers twiddled with his pendant. He cared for her, more than he cared for anyone else; I couldn't quite see why we had to be 'mad' at them. They had kept their secret just as we had kept ours and Ellen showed no signs of knowing ours, so in reality, wasn't it us who betrayed them?

My mind was spinning with unsolved puzzles, so much so that I failed to notice Misty begin to tell us why they wanted our pendants so badly. "…And he wants to use the pendants for his own…" I had to interrupt her; I wanted to hear this too.

"What?" as soon as I said this Drew and Gary teased me about being dense, Misty just turned to look at me and stared, her eyes weren't angry, nor were they showing any signs of the strong, confident, brave girl I had come to know and possibly love. They didn't look like her eyes at all; they looked like the eyes of a sad, hurt, fearful girl who seemed almost lonely in a way that made you think she had no one there to catch her when she falls, not even Leaf or May.

Ellen started for her noting her slight delay in reaction. "Let's start from the beginning, it might make more sense. Long ago in mermaid folklore it is said that all mer-people once started out all scaled and deep blue with webbed feet and hand. We had the tale of a crocodile and the teeth of a shark and we were considered hideous creatures. We looked like the fish man thing you saw Thomas, and we were called the Larks. We were terrible creatures who feed on the flesh of the land walkers and made games out of their deaths, until one day a kind, deformed, female Lark mated with a blind man she rescued. It is said she felt pity over the man who found her beautiful unlike no other Lark. They had a daughter who, instead of being one third human and two thirds fish, was the first mermaid. Her name was Alesmira.

When it came time for Poseidon to choose the ruling species of the sea he narrowed it down to the powerful Larks and the intuitive Cyclops. But because his one eyed children could not live in the water itself every creature knew who he would choose and out of fear of be controlled by the evil they knew the Larks would bring, they brought their own representative. They showed Alesmira to Poseidon and instantly he was overwhelmed by her beauty and when he asked the creatures of the sea why they had choose this unknown species of one to rule them when even he didn't know she existed they told him something neither the Larks or Cyclopes had. They told him she was kind, and that she would sing to the baby fish to help them sleep and chase away their bad dreams; that she would heal the sick and the injured fish and recue the ones in need. They told him that she valued the wealth of the sea over the power of it, and that her heart was bigger, and stronger, than any Larks.

The Larks, they didn't take kindly to this, and because she was half Lark and half human, a law had been broken, one that said no Lark was to come in contact with any human unless the human is killed before sighting the Lark. They called her ugly and threw insults at her; they treated her like a disease and cast her out. They killed her parents and told her she was never to be seen again by any Lark. Poseidon watched everything with a curious eye; he wanted to give her the sea and all of its glories but he wondered how he could give it to only one creature and trust that it not be used for wrong.

Instead of hating the Larks and believing them she strived to prove them wrong and to make them treat her like one of their own. She saved man and fish alike and when a Lark came into her care she treated them like any other and not more special or any worse. She became well liked and soon Poseidon gave her the sea. With this power she divided it into three even sections. She then told the Larks and the Cyclops that they each could have a section provided they follow the laws she gives them; they were not bound to only have these laws, they could have them and others but these were the ones that had to be followed by all. Soon, Poseidon gave her immorality and he bestowed her power that could rival his own; she had become his one and only daughter.

The Larks were happy for a while but soon grew jealous of her and wanted more and more, and she would give them more until their demands become evil and she told them no. They went to Hades and made a deal to destroy Alesmira and dethrone her but because it was Hades, instead of taking her life her took every Larks so when the emperor arrived back to the sea from hell, he was the last Lark left; his name was Sindar. Taking pity on him even though he had tried to kill her, Alsemira invited him into her home and gave his people's sprits a shadowy form that could talk and have emotions and everything of a real Lark. The emperor became angered by her generous actions and he himself tried to kill her, but because of her immortal status she was only wounded; in the process releasing Cronus and destroying much of the land and sea.

The only way to stop him and send him back to Tartarus was to go there with him and be sealed in for the rest of your life. Seeing this, Alesmira used her power to divide her section into fifths and created five pendants, one for each element that she thought was vital for life in the sea and land; and with the creation of each pendant was the creation of a mermaid, a new child who would live to rule the sea in her place. She knew that none of the gods could leave and be thrown in Tartarus, so she took it upon herself and drew Cronus back and sealed them both inside.

Because she is immortal she still lives in the retched place, and it's said that if you're lucky you can hear her singing when you walk by and that her voice still sounds as beautiful as ever, but that if you do hear it your heart will instantly break because she sings songs of freedom and life away from hell in her sea home.

Poseidon was furious with the emperor and so he took away the ability of his peoples souls Alesmira had given them and made them true shadows of what they once used to be; no emotion, no life, just red beady eyes and a black smoke form. He did this to remind him of this treacherous ways and to punish him, so he made the emperor immortal as well so he could be reminded of his mistakes every day for the rest of eternity. He took the third she had given him and gave it to her five daughters and he gave them the ability to create more of their kind by kissing the bubble of a hippocampus.

And so the mermaid society grew and once again the world turned to peace, and the pendants of Alesmira were passed down generation by generation; they are used to protect the barriers of Atlantis and keep the mermaids hidden from the outside world, but for the walls to be strong and safe, the pendants magic had to be restored every millennia by the first full moon of the year. The next millennium will be over in two years and we need those pendants, plus they aren't safe. Sindar is after them too and he won't ask nicely." She finished and a single tear fell. I felt terrible for the mermaid, Alesmira, she gave everything to save the world and she doesn't get a medal; no instead she gets eternity in hell with Cronus who must be angry with her. I could only imagine what he's done to her.

Thomas cleared his throat and leaned on the table before stating his question, and when he did I could tell he was fighting his emotions to comfort Ellen. "Why does he want the pendants if all they do is keep you hidden?"

Misty's head shot toward him and she looked shocked by this but honestly I was wondering the same thing. "That's not the only freaking thing they _do_! She gave them all her magic, which means they have the power to bring his people back to life, and if that happened he would then use them to overthrow Poseidon and enslave the mermaids, release Cronus and submerge the whole world killing every human. He's sick and he'll use the Vardin, his evil army of shadows (the shadows of his people) to get whatever he wants done!" She was almost screaming she was so angry, and after she finished she too stormed out of the restaurant leaving only Ellen behind.

She sighed and closed her eyes. "We broke into your house because we thought you could be the ancestors of the original protectors. They are the only ones with the blood to restore the magic. When the full moon rises, a single drop of blood from the protector of that pendant must be spread in the center. We wanted you to be the ancestors because then…we could tell you who we were and…" She stopped and just continued to cast her head downwards. "We need the pendants, please, they restore our borders and help our people."

Before I could answer Drew piped up and quickly shot her down; the look on her face and the sadness in her eyes was unbearable to even me and I swore I could've seen Thomas's heart break about 9 times to many throughout this conversation.

-Ash-

I remembered all this as the phone rang and rang. Once, twice, three times, and four until it was finally answered. Her voice rang through the phone and instantly I felt a little happier inside. "Hello…" she didn't sound happy but it was the sound of her voice and it alone reminded me of all the good times we had together this year.

"Misty, this is Ash and I just wanted to say…"

"Save it, I don't want to hear you complain about not understanding what went on in the restaurant this morning, I don't care and you can tell Drew that we'll be out of his god damn way by tomorrow. We're going home. Bye and before you say _good_ bye, look up the definition of _good_ first, okay?" ouch, that one stung a little, I remembered the tale of Alesmira and decided I wasn't going to take no for an answer.

"Misty, wait…we need to talk…"

-Hot Diggity Dog A Time Skippy-

I flipped my Icy pendant once more before hearing her footsteps on the docks. Turning to her I saw just how beautiful a woman, or mermaid, could be in the moonlight. Her red hair was tied up in a bun with the bangs left to frame her face while her short jean shorts elongated her legs. The yellow crop top and sperry's just screamed Misty, just like the red suspenders that hung down on her thighs instead of up. This all showed off her curves and legs nicely, but what struck me the most was the fact she had a belly ring, a cerulean pearl; something I had never seen before.

I pointed at it in question and hoping not to seem rude I asked her what exactly it was. "What's that?" she looked down then back up again and put her hand on her hip and waved her other one while she spoke.

"It's the pearl that's supposed to be put in the center of the pendant at the moon festival; you know when we restore the magic? The pearls are what mark the royal family, May and the others have one too. See, mermaids don't really have big jewelry or fancy clothes to mark their status in the world so we use tattoos and belly rings, problem?" she asked sarcastically. I shook my head slowly out of hurt and she continued. "Good, because if there was I really wouldn't give a shit about your problems seeing as how you don't give a shit about the whole freaking world's problems. Now if all you're going to do is question me, I'm off; later." She waved her hand a spun to leave.

Here she was the girl of my dreams and I just let her hate me. I let her feel this way about me, and now I was going to change it. Swiftly I reached for her upper arm and caught it gently and pulled her to me. I wrapped my arm around her slim waist with one arm and the other one was used to restrain her arms from smacking the living day lights out of me. "Ash; let me go! Don't you dare touch me!" She squealed.

She was always the braver, stronger one to me and I had always admired that about her. She was always a quick thinker and she was always the rational one, and I would not have her think I'm not her friend. "No, I don't want you to hate me, I want to help you. Look, Drew might have his thoughts but I have some of my own. And I want you to have my pendant, well technically your pendant but…" She had stopped squirming in my arms and was beginning to relax, then was when I noticed I could feel her breath and smell her hair; I could kiss her if I wanted. In that one moment it occurred to me that the gentle woman in my arms was just as fragile as any other, she just acted stronger than the rest; she wasn't actually braver but she was kinder and more understanding than any woman I ever knew. This was all mistaken for strength and bravery; intelligence for bronze and kindness for bravery.

I would she her stand tall when I thought she was in trouble when in reality she had already thought out a way to escape that situation, she was thinking it out even before you had realized it was going to happen. I had done what most would, and see that as strength to stand up for yourself; but it wasn't, it was the intelligence to know how to assure yourself so well that it would be mistaken for strength.

Then I would see her climb a big, thorny tree just to help a squirrel or kitten and that would be seen as bravery, but it was kindness, and love. And again she would use her intelligence to shape it into something that could be seen as bravery, when in reality she was just a kind person.

It dawned on me then that when I gave her the pendant, she would return to the sea and I would most likely never see her again. How could I give her up so easily, perhaps this was why Drew and the others said no and kept their pendants, perhaps not? I didn't really care then, all I cared about was what was about to happen.

"You can have your pendant, on one condition" she grew tense under my hold and my breathe hitched for a moment. Would she do it? What if she didn't, would I just give her the pendant anyway? Obviously I wasn't as smart as her or as quick a thinker, otherwise I would have had this all planned out.

"You can have it, if you'll kiss me first." Within seconds of the words leaving my mouth I felt her lips grace mine with their touch. A warm sting filtered throughout my body and cascaded down my limbs till it reached my fingers and toes. I let go of her wrists and placed my hands on her hips and she placed hers one on my face the other behind my head. I never wanted this to end, this moment was perfect; beautiful girl, beautiful view, beautiful moment. My body almost cried when the touch ended. It was then I realized my one fatal flaw; now, like Ellen, she knew I liked her, possibly even loved her.

**Hey so im sorry its taken so long and I hope its worth the wait. Also I wasn't going to post this yet because I have about another page written and I was just going to post like one big grand chapter but I realized it was taking too long and that I needed to update so when I post the next chapter, It might be wise to reread this one because they were originally supposed to be one chapter, im just and idiot wgo cant juggle band camp a job and little sister and a story. Also im terribly sorry if the chapters bad, if its like terrible ill rewrite it for you but the plot will stay the same, I just basically wrote it chapter by chapter day by day because I got so busy and omg I just stopped all together at one point…it was so scary. One more thing ignore the '**sexy**' and '**hot diggity dog**' in there that was just e bein me and yeah so I do hoped you liked it and please vote in my poll. It is a 4-1 vote right now and as soon as it becomes a 5-1 I will close it and go with the winning option. Thanks again for taking the time to read my story and im working on getting more Ash and Misty in there, could you tell I wonder? Anyway thanks again and have an excellent day guys! (also you know it would be kinda nice to tell me what you thought of this chapter, right? nod your head and say yes because you know it would!)**

**Courtesy of,**

**Jay Gatsby**


	12. Chapter 12

-Ash-

The passionate embrace was over all too soon and she left me longing for her touch. The parts of me still enchanted by her spell urged me to hold her and kiss her again while the sane parts argued to just hand over the pendant and except what I got. So I began to withdraw myself from her, until she sighed in content and rested her head on my chest.

I was shocked; never once had it occurred to me that she might've wanted to kiss me as much as I wanted to kiss her, and now it had. She might actually share the feelings I have for her, and that's when it hit me.

Ellen did like Thomas; she just never got the chance to tell him. She might know of mind readers, just not that we were ones. Ellen knew of us, just not about us.

We were angry with them because they used us, or so we thought. They liked us back, so maybe they had no intentions of hurting us. They certainly didn't force us to like them.

"Misty," I whispered softly in her ear and we began to rock back and forth making me cherish the moment. "When I give it to you are you going to leave?" If she liked me then she might be compelled to stay here, with me.

She inhaled and exhaled slowly closing her eyes while turning her head to place her chin on my chest instead. When she opened her eyes and smiled her viridian eyes sparkled brighter than a star. The whole action made my heart pound like a fish beating against the current of a river. "I don't think I could…" Her voice faded quieter and quieter and she cast her gaze downward. When she looked up again she giggled, "You grin like the purple cat from Alice and Wonderland, just not as creepy."

I chuckled and grinned heavily at her, she was perfect just the way she was (see what I did there). Today turned out to be a pretty good damn day. "So what was that about 'Royal Family'?"

-Dawn-

"Perhaps the boys kidnapped her too?" May threw her arms up in confusion. Misty had just disappeared and she had left her phone, something unusual for her.

Ellen shook her head slowly while pacing around the room having both her hands on her hip. No, they had Dawn, and we told them everything. They have no need for Misty…"

She was upset and we all knew why. Thomas had thought she had used him like a pawn in a wicked game of chess. It wasn't true; she admitted her feelings for him early this morning apparently. I was so upset I missed it, still am too…

"I don't know about that. I told them why we were here, however I didn't tell them why we were the ones to come. Unless you told them they have no idea, or shouldn't, that we are the ancestors of the original five mermaids created by Alesmira." I clasped my hands behind my back and begun to sway after completing my statement.

Ellen ceased her pacing and looked at me pointing her finger with furrowed eyebrows. Bouncing her hand she looked from me to May and Leaf. "You could be right, and here I was thinking I lived with two Ash's." And she replaced her hand on her hip. Thanks Ellen.

May hopped up and pointed at Leaf. "HA! Ellen just called you an Ash, that's funny." And she giggled. Poor May, poor poor May.

Leaf just glared in response before stating "I don't think y'all have thought about who were talking about here, She's probably tearing Ash limb from limb as we speak." I laughed at that, Leaf sure was funny.

"Not likely silly Billy, have you SEEN the way she fraternizes with that boy?" The girls erupted with laughter after a few seconds of staring blindly. That was something I couldn't say in front of Misty. I slowly crossed my arms and let the have a few moments to calm down.

"Well, we still need to eliminate the boys as an option so that means someone has to go to their house. I volunteer…" She then extended her arm firmly and pointed at me "Dawn as our tribute." I almost feel in panic.

They don't honestly expect me to go back there? "May the odds be ever in your favor." I heard Leaf comment. Apparently, they did.

I shifted my weight onto one leg and began to pout, "And why exactly should it be me?"

May giggled and placed a hand on my shoulder as I scowled at her. I learned from the best on that one. "Because, Leaf and I need to go groceries shopping. You know, me because I love to buy food, Leaf because I love to buy too much food. It all works out." I just stared at her in disbelief. I already knew why Ellen couldn't, _wouldn't, _do it, and that just left me.

Sighing I went to my room and put my hair in a hair pony tail while throwing on some lace, white jean shorts and a plain beige V-neck tee that was more than 2 sizes too big. After slipping on a pair of white sandals I trudged out the door prepared for torture.

-Time Skippy-

Paul swung the door open with such force I felt pulled toward it. He just stood there with an annoyed expression, what a jerk. I had figured that I would just try to confuse him like he had me, they say pay backs a bitch. "Where's Misty." I blurted out.

His voice changed to match his confused tone. "What?" Nope, she's not here. I swiveled on my heel and promptly began to walk off even after I heard him call after me though I kept walking until I felt my body being lifted up off the ground and gently placed back down on the porch. He was now closer to the street with me in the door way.

"What's wrong?" He tugged on his black shirt revealing his muscles, and the bright pink sparkles. I smiled slightly at the sight of them until I noticed that Paul had a toned chest, there was no denying that.

It happened then for the first time, I shivered. Then twice and a third time and by then I was certain he was here. I shot past Paul in fright, hearing my name as I did so, and then I froze. He was here for me yes, but as soon as he saw my pendant he would react. "Paul you have to give me my pendant right now, Sindar is here and…" Suddenly I was interrupted by a throbbing pain in my throat and I was lifted up off the ground. Sindar then stepped into my line of sight, he held onto my neck tightly making it impossible to breath and I choked for air. "Pathetic fish," he seethed, "You thought you could escape the great and powerful Sindar? Well you thought wroARRRGH!" He screeched in pain from the fist that came in contact with his elbow forcing it up and making the bone crack and splinter under the skin.

I fell to the floor gasping for breaths and instantly Paul was by my side. "Dawn, you okay?" I could've sworn I heard worry in his voice but I had no time to ponder over it as Sindar threw his other arm down at us. I screamed thinking the worst only something incredible happened. Paul caught his deadly claws and tightened his grip forcing the cracking of bones to be heard once more. Paul was so strong, but how?

Sindar became furious and used the claws on his feet to create three large gashes on Paul's chest sending his bask against the pavement. Paul reacted quickly thought and slammed his fist into Sindar's chest and again cracking could be heard. How could he be fighting him so easily? Even the strongest of the mer-people could only last seconds before being ripped apart by his immense strength.

One last swipe at Paul's face and Sindar had made the mistake of leaving his own face unguarded. Paul threw his scaly head to the ground wrecking the pavement underneath.

Paul's strength was unbelievable, it wasn't human. He then proceeded to throw Sindar yards away who then limped off yelling some threats I wasn't able to comprehend. As soon as Paul was sure he was long he came rushing towards me. He honestly seemed genuinely concerned about me.

"Dawn, can you breath? He didn't hurt you did he?" I looked up at him in astonishment. A mixture of dry and wet blood now stained his ripped shirt.

How and why was he concerned about me? He didn't have feelings, he had grunts. "Am I okay? You're the one who's bleeding and who just beat the heck out of the strongest fish in the sea! What the hell are you thinking, asking if _I'm _okay?" I might've said that a little too harshly for Paul began to scowl once more. I took a couple of deep breaths and placed one of my shaky hands on Paul's chest and watched him wince in pain. "Are you okay Paul?" I was worried about him; in all my life I never thought I'd see Paul concerned, especially not about me.

He grunted and sat next to me in the grass and I placed my other hand on his chest examining his wounds until I felt his cold gaze on me. As I looked up midnight clashed with onyx and time froze. It was beautiful; it was a silent conversation through our eyes and I loved every second of it. "Thank you…" I slowly and so softly it was barely a whisper.

I brushed my hands across his chest and that's when I realized what was missing. Swiftly I looked down at his chest in panic and from the corner of my eye I saw Paul's face change in worry. "Dawn?" he questioned.

My face must've been hideous from all the fear welling up inside me. The worst sinking feeling erupted throughout my body and I just seemed to fade away like a single grain of sand. How could I let this happen; how?

I came crashing back to reality from Paul's violent shaking. "Dawn!" He was oblivious, completely oblivious.

I stared up at him in terror and shank inside. Slowly shrinking down to the lowest possible altitude possible while still sitting up I shook my head at him, "Paul, my pendant, it's gone…"

-Ash-

We were enjoying each other's company as well as the dim sunlight while walking down the beach hand in hand. I watched her hum lightly to herself basking in the warmth as I remembered something. "Oh, hey Mist, you didn't happen to come across my cologne when you straightened my room did you?"

She stopped dead in her tracks and blinked a couple of times before changing her face to one of bewilderment. "…So you're smart about your flipping cologne but not about math?"

"Nah, maths got too much math in it for me."


End file.
